A story my mother wrote years ago (and yes, I had permission to place it here). I love this story, she has such an imagination. I think I’m just like her in this way… READ ON!!
THE OCEAN IS GONE!
I’m frequently heard saying, “I’ve got to go down to the beach to see if the ocean is still there.” You’ll hear most Islanders say that… Well, one day I watched two suspicious characters walking towards the beach. They whispered between themselves and one kept glancing around.
A while later as I looked out my window, minding everybody’s business but my own, I saw the two men return. Their pockets were bulging, seaweed kept dropping from their clothing and I even saw a fish fluttering in the street after they passed by. They looked bedraggled and worn out, as though they had been in a battle.
Sometime later, I finally made it down the street to the top of the dunes. I looked and blinked, and looked again. All I could see was sand. The ocean was gone!!! I went down closer to what should be the shoreline and could see nothing but stone jetties out in the expanse of sand. There was seaweed, lures, tangled fishing lines and a few sidestepping crabs. A desert where an ocean had been. Where did it go, into an under-ground cavern? Where? Stranger still, were the people walking beside an imaginary ocean. At least no one tried to swim. They all looked straight ahead down the beach, or up toward the dunes.
Now, my imagination is pretty good, but not that good! I know there’s no ocean, even if I don’t look where it should be. The silence is enough to let me know it isn’t there. But, it seems as though no one else wants to acknowledge it is gone!!!
Deep wet sneaker (tennis shoes) tracks led back up to the dunes, shells, pieces of seaweed, and a stray jellyfish lay here and there. On up the sand, away from the beach, and down the street, I went. I knew there was something fishy about those two men. Past my house lay a piece of driftwood, and a gasping sand-shark. I kept on, and came to a house that rocked to and fro. Strange resounding clashes came from within. A salty odor lingered in the air around me. The door started to open and out came the two men, more bedraggled than ever, if possible, wearing soggy sneaks and pockets still bulging. They trudged down the street with determination. Three steps forward, and two steps back. Muffled crash of waves echoed around them. Soon I could see them no more. They had disappeared over the dunes. I looked up and saw gulls hunting for fish and realized the familiar sound of the ocean was back.
My ears trick me at times, so I cautiously looked over the sand dunes to see my familiar ocean back where it belongs, and two very tired men laying on the beach.
Now, I’m not going to tell you what I think happened, you just draw your own conclusions. Soon things will be back to normal, and so will I.
