Forty Days and Nights: Love Stories. 13. Northern Beaches

It was a perfect day.
There was sand everywhere.
He loved it, he loved that. He even loved it when there was a little sand in the sandwiches. It made him laugh to himself, a tiny joke in the food. Not too much sand in the food, just a very little grit. These were scrambled egg sandwiches, his favorite. The sand in the egg made him think of eggshells. He loved that.

His sister was trying to wipe sand off a cookie she had dropped. He watched her as she concentrated, carefully wiping every single grain, and wiping more and more onto the cookie from her sandy hand. She was too little, too small to understand where the sand kept coming from or to be surprised that there was more and more. He thought somebody older would just throw that cookie away, but he knew the pink waffle ones were her favorite. She worked seriously and contentedly on the cookie for a long time, and he watched her, wondering if she would win or the sand would win. Then his mom leaned over to the sister, a new pink cookie in her hand and her other hand held out for the sandy cookie. Trade you? his mom asked, and his sister smiled when she took the new cookie. Their mom took the sandy cookie at the same time and his sister never noticed. He watched his mom keeping her eyes on his laughing sister while she threw the sandy cookie far away. His mom was so smart!

Now two seagulls swooped down to grab the sandy cookie while it was still flying through the air. They were fighting for it! They both pulled on the pink cookie and he watched, hardly breathing. They were fighting in the air. One of them, the younger gull, twisted the cookie away and flew off, tossing its head up and back, swallowing the whole thing in one gulp. He knew it was a younger gull; his dad had taught him to tell from the feathers. He bounced in the sand and laughed. He wished they had more food to throw. Sometimes his mom brought a loaf of bread for him to tear in pieces and throw up into the sky. Gulls would come diving for it, they never let a piece touch the ground. He wished they could do that now. He loved watching the gulls.

He was looking around for some old food to throw when he saw the baby eating sand. He stopped to watch the baby picking up both fists full of hot, dry sand. The baby watched the sand pour through its fingers, and then jammed the sand that was left into its mouth. The baby's mouth was all black and dusty, no, muddy, from eating sand. He looked over at his mom; she was reading a magazine. She didn't see the baby with a mouth full of sand. He smiled at the baby and the baby smiled back, wet sand running down its chin. The sand dribbled onto the baby's leg and made the smallest sandcastle in the world. The baby waved its hands and laughed, and he laughed too.

He made a sand castle, a big one.
He and his sister ran in the wet, hard sand where the ocean ran back and forth. They looked for shells and when they found one they washed off the sand and made a pile of shells where their mom was reading the magazine. She looked up and smiled every time they brought another shell. The baby waved and threw sand. Their mom smiled at the baby and shook sand out of her magazine and off of the blanket where the baby had slung it. They ate, and later they ate again. He was careful and the only sand that stayed on his hands was the tiny black kind that is like flakes and sticks to your fingers.

His mom put sunscreen on the children twice.
He watched his dad sleeping and his dad had turned the most beautiful color while he was asleep. Like a rose, he thought to himself. His dad was the same color as the sunset and that thought made him very happy too. It was a very pretty color. He thought how nice it would be for his dad, when he woke up and had turned such a pretty color.

His mom said it was time to go home.
He helped her, carrying towels and her magazine. His dad and everyone carried things. They walked back to the car and their shoes filled with dry sand that had been hot when they came, but was getting very cold now. He turned around and turned around to watch the sun sliding down into the ocean. Everything was bright, the sand was golden. As far as he could see it was golden sand and sun gold water. He turned back around and sang a little song while he was walking. In the car they ate the rest of the waffle cookies and there was a little bit of grit in them so he was happy the sand was coming home with them.

His dad was a more beautiful red color now, and he wasn't as happy being a wonderful color as the little boy had thought he would be. His dad was talking about all the sand they were taking home with them. His dad was saying the car was full of sand. Absolutely full! The little boy was so happy, curling his toes in and out of the sand inside his shoes. He hadn't known they were bringing any sand home with them, and he was very happy to think they were. He was so happy about a car full of sand. He ate a brown waffle cookie and thought how smart his mom was. Sand in the car. What a good day. He was so happy.