​"Kenney..." There was a light tap on my forehead, but I didn't want to wake up. "Kenney..." I was having that dream again. The one about the girl. "Kenney, wake up.

​I turned over to get five more minutes. Pulling the covers over my head, I tried to see the girl a little better. I could never see her face. She always had her back to me. I think she was older than me, but I was older than me, too, in that dream.

​And I was in love with that girl.

​The girl in my dreams.

​In real life, I hadn't felt that kind of love yet. But in my dream, I knew exactly what I was feeling.

​The sun suddenly came out and shined all over the place, making her sparkle, just like it always did in this dream. There was water in the distance, too, like an ocean. And that also always sparkled, as soon as the clouds parted and the sun came out.

​"Kenney..."

​"Sammy, I know you hear me..." I laughed when she ignored me, thinking that we were playing a game.
I was getting confused. Sammy?"

​"Kenney?"

​"Sammy...where are you?"

​Her voice was floating in and out of my dream. I was carrying on a conversation with her in my sleep. It wasn't the first time that I talked to my sister in my sleep, and it wouldn't be the last.

​"I'm right here, Kenney. Wake up. I had that dream again..."

​My eyes fluttered open and I saw my sister standing over my bed with huge, scared eyes, just like she always was when she had her dream. The same one. Every single time.

And she always came straight to me.

​Every time.

​"Kenney. Wake up..." She taped my forehead again, and I swatted her hand away. "I had a bad dream."

​"Sammy..." I groaned. "Go get Charity. I'm sleeping." I didn't want to leave the girl in my dreams behind. She made me feel...different.

I liked it.

​I wanted to get closer to her.

​"No, Kenney. It was really bad this time." The tears in Sammy's voice forced me to open my eyes.

Just like I thought.

​She was crying.

​Again.

​Towards the end, Sammy was always crying. And always hurting. Whenever she hurt, it made me hurt, too. "Sammy...what's wrong?"

​"Kenney." She wiped away the tears in her right eye. I wiped away the tears in her left. "Did daddy come home tonight?"

​"Yeah."

​He had been staying out all night a lot lately.
​"Are you sure?"

​"Yeah." I moved over to make room for her before she even asked.

​"Move over. I'm sleeping in here tonight." I already knew that. I scooted over more and pulled the covers up over her shoulders as she snuggled in closer to me.

​Sammy was my favorite sister. I always did what she asked. Always. Anything she asked, I would have done. She was my all-time favorite person. Since the day I was born.

​Sammy was a very tall twelve-year-old.  She was too old to be climbing in the bed with me, and definitely too big to even be trying to fit into that twin bed with me. She crowded me out of my own bed, actually, and my legs and arms always fell asleep because I couldn't move anywhere. But even with all that, I still always slept better when she was with me.

​"It's ok, Sammy." I kissed her cheek and wrapped my small arms around her. "It was just a dream. Nothing's gonna happen to daddy."

​She rolled over onto her side and stared into my eyes, inches from my face. Her eyes, grey with specs of brown, were identical to Aunt Jazz's in every way and told me the truth every time, just like Jazz's did. Sammy believed me. But she was still scared. She was shaking. I hugged her closer to me. That's about the best a seven-year-old could do to calm somebody's fears, and I was happy that she came to me. I was happy that I could help.

​"Kenney, you promise?"

​"I promise." I kissed my sister's face again, just like I always did, and promised her that everything would be alright.

I promised her that every time.

​I loved her so much that I always told her whatever she wanted to hear. I told her what I need to be true. Daddy wasn't going anywhere. He couldn't. Because I knew, just as sure as I was lying there watching her eyes finally get heavy, that my sister would never live without him.

​They would both be lost, just like in that dream that me and Sammy had on the exact same night. I knew just as sure as I was looking at her that if daddy went, he was taking my Sammy with him.