“Watch where you step!”
“I need the bucket.”
Shadows lengthened as the tide crept closer. Finally, sandy, sweaty, and sunburnt, they stood back to admire their creation.
Meg tilted her head to one side, considering. “It needs something.”
“A feather?” Beth suggested.
“A shell,” Amy said. She ran to Beth’s pile of treasures and chose the prettiest, curliest shell she could find.
“I’ll do it.” Jo took the shell, leaning over to stick it in the window of the tallest tower.
Amy sighed. “I wish we lived in a castle.”
Meg smiled. “It would be awfully sandy.”
They watched a curl of water lap at their castle’s foundation. A bit of the wall crumbled away.
“And dangerous,” Beth said. “When the tide comes in.”
Jo put her arm around Beth. “It’s still good to dream. ‘Build your castles in the air. That is where they should be,’” she declaimed.
That was probably a poem or something, Amy thought. Jo had read more than anybody else, and wanted you to know it.
“I don’t need a castle,” Meg said. “Although I would like a big house on the river like the Gardiners’. And somebody to clean it.”
“So... a castle with servants,” Jo said.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Going to college to find your prince?” Trey asked slyly. Jo punched him in the arm. “Ow.”
Meg turned pink. Or maybe that was sunburn. “I’m going to get aneducation,” she said with dignity. “But if I meet someone, that’s great. I want a family, one day. Like Momma and Daddy. I want to get married.”
“Not me. I want to be in control of my own life. I want to havepurpose,” Jo said.
“I thought you wanted to be a writer,” Amy said.
“Daddy says writers can change the world,” Jo declared. “I’m going to write aNew York Timesbestselling novel. And then, when I’m a rich and famous author, I’ll come home and buy you all presents.”
“I don’t care about presents,” Beth said. “As long as you come home.”
“What’s your dream?” Trey asked.
Beth ducked her head. “I don’t really have one. I just want us all to be together.”
“Bethie’s going to be a famous musician,” Jo said. “You can discover her.”
“I would like to learn to play guitar better,” Beth said.
“I have lots of dreams,” Amy said. “Like, I want to be the best artist in the whole world. Or winProject Runwayand have my own fashion line and see all my dresses on the red carpet.”
Jo rolled her eyes.
“What?” Amy demanded.
Trey grinned. “Jo wants to change the world, and you want to make it pretty.”
