Elliot woke up that morning feeling a surge of anxiety as he always did. He laid in bed till the anxiety subsided and then rolled and got out of bed and went out of the room. He walked down the hallway to the kitchen where his wife Alma and their adopted daughter Lucy were.

"Hi babe," Alma said. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," Elliot lied. "What're you making?" He asked Lucy. She was standing in front of the stove with a spatula in her hand cooking something on the stovetop in a pan. She looked up and smiled at him, "French toast."

"Oh awesome, my favourite," Elliot said.

They all ate breakfast and then it was time to get ready for work. Elliot put some work clothes on, as did the rest of his family and then they all headed outside. They went down to the Oceanside and Lucy started looking for pretty shells in the sand. Elliot grabbed his fishing tackle and whatnot and started fishing while Alma collected seaweed. Elliot enjoyed the sunrise on the murky waters in the cool morning breeze.

Far away from vegetation as they could get.

After about an hour Alma came over and asked "How many have you caught?" He pointed into the bucket, she looked inside and said, "Oh, none. Well, keep at it."

"Alma," he said.

She smiled. "Yes?"

"I don't know if..." he sighed. "Maybe living in fear isn't the right way to live."

"Better to be living in fear than to be dead," she replied.

"I know but... honey it's been two years and nothing. And I know that doesn't really mean anything but..." he sighed again. "I feel like I'm not giving our daughter the life she deserves. And honestly, I'm a little tired of fishing."

"You're a middle aged man, you're supposed to love fishing!" she laughed.

He laughed too. "I know hun. And I do like it. But there's a whole world out there and honestly, I'm not afraid of it. Sure it might happen again. It's happened twice already so there's no saying it won't happen a hundred more times in our lives. But that's just the way it is. We can either let that fear control us. Or we can rise up and show it we're not afraid."

Alma was quiet for a long time. Elliot looked up and saw she was considering.

"I won't risk Lucy's life," she said at last.

He put his rod down and stood up and hugged her. "I know. I just had to let my thoughts out."

She hugged him back. She had tears in her eyes.

"Honestly I don't know what the right thing to do is," she whispered. "I mean what's so bad about this life? I mean we live on the beach for Pete's sake."

Elliot smiled. "That is true. I just wish..."