My Beach
Uploaded by Sunflower on Oct 29, 2001
I'm walking along the beach. It is not just any beach, it is my beach. Of course not really but I call it my beach, because every time I am at this place there is nothing else but the beach and me. I'm walking in the sand, barefoot. The salty water is cool, but not cold. With each step I leave a footprint in the wet, grainy sand. But it doesn't last for a long time because the next wave overflows it soon, takes it away into the wide ocean. The wind is blowing my open hair into my face. The smell of the ocean, the water and the seaweed mixes with the smell of the shampoo I washed my hair with this morning. I almost run into a jogger who is coming towards me with his walkman in his hand. I haven't seen him coming because I am walking backwards, watching the red sun sinking smoothly into the ocean. For a short moment I'm wondering what kind of music the jogger is listening to. I pretend it is the soundtrack of Titanic. I can hear it without any technical equipment. I can hear it because it is in my heart. There is the sad melody of the sinking ship mingling with the sound of the waves. A seagull is crying as if it wants to say, "See, this is my beach. I live here." I look up to it and nod in agreement, maybe with a little bit of jealousy that it is the seagull and not me who lives there.
I feel a sudden pain in my left foot. "Aua!" I say aloud with anger in my voice. I look down on the ground to see what it was and my anger is suddenly washed away like my footprints behind me. The little thing that is lying in the sand, that hurt my foot when I stepped on it, the same little thing brings now a smile on my face. It is a shell, not bigger than my fingertip. I bend down to pick it up. It is full of sand and I wipe it off on my skirt. The outside is not really nice. It is black and green with white spots on it, lime or something. But when I turn it around, then I can see the beauty of it. It is a shining white, and sometimes,...