When the summer is hot and the air feels heavy, sometimes we go down to the beach.

Kian likes to go into the water. Olivia likes to walk on the jetty. Finn likes to build sand castles. Xavier likes to lie in the sun. Owen and I like to bury each other in the sand. I almost buried him all the way once, until our uncle Aber noticed and got worried and told me to dig him up. He was disappointed, he told me later that he was pretending to be a crab, but Uncle Aber only tells us to do things in that tone of voice when he is worried about us, he said, “Aiden, don’t do that, don’t pour sand on your brother’s head, dig him out of there,” so I listened.

That was a few years ago. We’ve buried each other up to the necks since then, but not over the head. We tried to bury Xavier once, but he kicked the sand off of him and ran away. Olivia wouldn’t even let us put a grain of sand on her, she is too prim and proper for the beach. That’s what Uncle Nua said once, but I don’t think I was supposed to hear it, because he smiled but put his finger against his lips when he looked over and saw that I had heard.

Today, though, even though the sun is hot and there’s not even a slight breeze to cool us down, we are in the backyard instead of down on the beach. That is because our aunt Ava wants to lie on a pool chair. She is supposed to be watching us, but she lets us run around and around and around, as long as we don’t crush the flowers. Gramma and Grampa used to not even let us play on the fountain, they didn’t want us to fall in, but now we’re old enough, they’ve stopped being so bossy about that. Kian and Olivia are in the pool, and I am sitting with my feet in the water, because we were supposed to play a game, but they are arguing again. They always argue over who gets to be in charge, even when Finn and Xavier and Owen and I are all waiting waiting waiting to start a game. “I’m in charge,” says Kian, “because I’m the oldest.”

“No,” says Olivia. “I’m the girl.”

“Kids,” says Aunt Ava in her loud scolding voice. She is lying on her pool chair with sunglasses on, and Uncle Aber is lying next to her with his head on her shoulder, but he looks up and over at us when Aunt Ava yells. “I’m in charge, actually, and I say play nice.”

Uncle Aber grins, especially when Olivia rolls her eyes and Kian makes a frustrated noise. Aunt Ava likes to say she’s in charge, but we all know that Gramma and Grampa are in charge. Even Aunt Ava knows it, but she still says she’s in charge anyway. Gramma and Grampa are Uncle Aber’s parents, and our mom’s parents, he told us once. He hardly ever talks about our mom. Our mom is his sister. He is married to Aunt Ava, who is also married to Uncle Nua. Uncle Penny is Aunt Ava’s brother. And Bayan does not like it when we call him Uncle Bayan, so we just call him Bayan. He’s the one that makes us food every night.

Xavier gets along well with Uncle Nua, because they are both quiet and like to read. Uncle Nua likes to talk to him about books. Sometimes Aunt Ava says he’s too young for the books Uncle Nua wants him to read but Uncle Nua always insists he’s got a schedule. Uncle Aber rolls his eyes and says sounds like fun, but Xavier seems to like it. Uncle Penny is the really fun one, though. He’s always ready to play with us, in the pool and with our toys and then to tuck us in at night. Me and Owen share a room, just because of space, Aunt Ava always says, Kian and Finn and Xavier get their own rooms, but they are smaller than ours. Olivia gets her own room too because she’s a girl. There is an extra bedroom, but it is closed, always. Uncle Aber told me once, because I asked why I could not have the other bedroom instead of sharing, one of the few times that he’s talked to me about his sister my mom, that they’re keeping it in case my mom ever comes back here. It seems like she has been away for a long time, and she will keep being away for even longer.

Finn and Xavier and Kian are going away this week, too. Xavier and Kian have the same father, so they’re more brothers to each other than they are to the rest of us, but Uncle Aber says that doesn’t matter. Still, Xavier and Kian’s dad likes to see them every so often, so about once a month Grampa takes them to stay with him for a few days. Finn will visit his dad, too. The rest of us, me and Olivia and Owen, we don’t know who our dads are. We know our mom is Uncle Aber’s sister, but I think I heard Aunt Ava tell him once that our dads didn’t want to see us. I don’t know if I heard that right, so I never asked them about it, I didn’t want them to know I was eavesdropping. But if it is true it would make me a bit sad. Olivia didn’t believe it when I told her; she says any father would like to know his daughter. Sometimes she is a bit annoying about the fact that she is the only girl.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

But Gramma and Grampa and Uncle Aber and Aunt Ava never let her get away with it for too long. We all have to act fair, they say. They don’t let Kian get away with being the oldest for too long, either. We’re all only a month apart, and it really doesn’t matter that much. We all celebrate our birthdays on the same day, November fifteenth, because that is the day that nine years ago Gramma and Grampa and Aunt Ava and the uncles brought us all home from the hospital to the house on the beach. Our eleventh birthday is coming up soon, well, three months, maybe, Bayan makes three giant cakes for it because Kian and Xander like yellow and Olivia likes strawberry because it’s pink and Owen and Finn and I like chocolate. Finn’s dad and Kian and Xavier’s dad both come over for the day, too. It’s the only time they come over to our house instead of Finn and Kian and Xavier going to stay with them. I think it’s because we only have nine bedrooms and we have to save one for Mom, if she ever comes home.

We have met Mom three times. She lives in a big apartment building that she is not allowed to leave, so we have to go to her. The first time we met her was on our fifth birthday. The second time was on our seventh birthday, and the third was last year, not on our birthday but hers, hers and Uncle Aber’s, February 28th. It was cold that time, even in the apartment building that she lived in, we wore our coats inside but she let us run around the special visiting room and play with the toys and games they have in there for us, as she talked to her brother and her parents, and then she came and talked to us. We tell her about school and about the beach house and Kian and Xavier and Finn tell her about their dads, too, and she always seems a bit sad when they tell her about their dads, but she always asks questions about them.

I have asked Aunt Ava and Uncle Aber and even Uncle Penny why our mom has to live in her own building, why she can’t live with us, we even have a bedroom ready and waiting for her. Aunt Ava and Uncle Aber always say the same thing, they say maybe soon, she might move in to live with us soon, but they have been saying that for years. Uncle Penny told me the truth, a little while ago, when he said I was old enough to hear at least part of it. He told me not to tell my brothers and sister, but he grabbed me around the waist and picked me up and said, “Stop wiggling, Aiden, or else I won’t tell you,” and then he put me down and sat down next to me and he said that our mom had done a bad thing, a long time ago, and she was still trying to make it right. That’s why she could not live with us. I asked what kind of bad thing, and Uncle Penny smiled a little, and said I wasn’t old enough for that part yet. I wonder if he’s told the rest of them, too, and just told us not to tell each other.

I have often wondered why our mom does not live with us, but Kian and Olivia and Xavier and Finn and Owen often wonder why we all live together. There are way too many people here, Finn said once on our birthday when we were trying to figure out how to fit another chair around the dining room table for his dad. “Why do so many people live here?”

“Because it’s a big house,” answered Aunt Ava. She pulled Uncle Nua’s chair around to be next to her so they would both be at the head of the table, and Gramma and Grampa did the same at the other end. It is a big house, but there are still so many people. But other than it being a big house, Uncle Aber has told me why we all live here, he says it is because we are a family. Kian and Olivia and Xavier and Finn and Owen and my’s last name is Ahman, and so is Gramma and Grampa’s, and so is our mom’s. But Aunt Ava and Uncle Penny and Uncle Nua’s last name is LeGatte, so at first it might seem like we are two different families. But then there’s Uncle Aber. He has two last names, stuck together with a line, his name is Aberworth Ahman-LeGatte. He sticks us together. As long as he’s there he connects the two sides of us because he has both last names and so he is part of both families and so we all come together into one big family.

And then there’s Bayan. His last name is Haldar. But he stays with Uncle Penny, so that’s fine too.

It’s just what you do for your family, Uncle Aber says. He’s the sticky stuff between the Ahmans and the LeGattes, and everything he does is to keep us stuck together. Bringing Kian and Xander and Finn to see their dads, and bringing all of us to see our mom, and how Gramma and Grampa help Aunt Ava with her job in the city and how Uncle Penny helps Bayan cook dinner for us, and how Uncle Nua shares his books with Xavier and with all of us, really, and how Uncle Aber makes sure he comes around to tuck us all in, every night. It’s what you do for your family. That’s what the Ahmans and the LeGattes and the Ahman-LeGattes do. It’s all for family.