Just a little note on a tiny shred of paper. Nothing more but also nothing less. Still, it was a first and it made her heart ache.

Bessie stepped out on the porch and sat down on the steps. Her eyes wandered over to the creek and their dock. Slowly a smile lightened her sad face.

"Have fun, Joey. You deserve it." Bessie whispered fully aware that her sister couldn’t hear her. For as much as she knew she might even be far, far away from Capeside by now.

Sailing down to the Keys with Pacey, that was what she had scribbled down. Her little sister alone with her first real boyfriend on a teeny weeny sailboat for about three months. Of course Joey would rather leave her a note and confront her with the facts after she had left already. If she had asked or told her about it face to face... she would have forbidden her to go... probably.... most certainly actually.

Of course she wasn’t Joey’s mother but her sister. Of course she’d grilled her about every detail that had happened between her and Dawson. Well, at that time... Dawson had been kind of ‘safe’ in her eyes. Pacey was quite a different story. He most definitely was dangerous ... especially paired with raging teenage hormones.

Her ‘being Joey’s sister self’ was really amused, no, happy about their relationship and boy did she know what kind of effect a Witter could have on a Potter. And it was normal for Joey’s age to, well... have first real relationships, hell, she experienced those herself.

But...

On the other hand, there was the ‘being Joey’s substitute mother / mother figure / guardian self’. And that ‘self’ listed all the obvious and not so obvious reasons why Joey shouldn’t go on that trip.

Bessie knew that she could trust Joey and that she could even trust Pacey. She saw how he behaved around her and with her. His love was so prominent and she was sure that he would never do anything to hurt Joey.

Maybe there was something else. Something every parent had to go through at some point in time.

Her little baby sister was growing up. In fact, in more senses than one she had grown up years ago, she had to, both of them had to.

Bessie hugged her knees close to her chest. How many times had she lay awake in bed, mourning her mother, battling with the fact that their father was imprisoned... but most of all hating that Joey’s childhood had been taken away from her in this cruel and sad way.

Being with Pacey made her so unbelievably happy which in return made herself happy.

Joey was growing up. She was spending a whole summer away from home, with the boy she loved, with someone who wasn’t immediate family... at least not yet.

Bessie giggled at that thought. Pacey Witter, her future brother-in-law. Well, she could live with that... if it should ever happen.

Joey was building a life of her own, a life in which she wasn’t the most important person anymore. And then, there was only one year left before she would go to college. She would move out and then she would be gone for more than just three months.

A single tear rolled down Bessie’s cheek and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. She’d never thought that it would be that hard, that painful, that overwhelming... letting go. It was time she started to let her go. She had grown up. She didn't need her as much as she used to.

Suddenly Alex started to whine. He’d probably woken up from his afternoon nap and couldn’t find his Mommy.

Bessie stood up, smiling again. Maybe she had to let go of her motherly feelings towards Joey, but there were a lot of years ahead for her, in which Alex would need his Mommy.

And the prospects of being Joey’s sister again, well.... Bessie couldn’t wait to hear what happened over the summer. Sure there would be ‘things’ to tell, that you wouldn’t tell your Mom but your sister.

With one last glance to the sunset mirroring in the creek Bessie let go.

Not everything was bad about letting go. Not at all.

Back to Short Stories part 2

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