Beach Day

Elizabeth and Yusuuf made it to the beach a couple of months later. Elizabeth was pregnant again, but she wasn't showing. Yusuuf had bought her a burkhini to wear -- the only flesh showing was her feet and hands. She frolicked with Emily and Aaron in the shallows, while Yusuuf kept a watchful eye on Katie playing in the sand, holding his son Awad.

Soon enough, Elizabeth felt like an outsider, as she often did now. She noticed plenty of stares, and other families start to gradually decamp from that stretch of beach. Emily and Aaron were too busy having fun to notice, but Elizabeth felt the need to belong.