18 - Buried

18 - Buried

I love how the sand feels on my feet. It’s different to any other texture and its rare that I get to feel it sinking into my toes. We were heading to the beach, or that’s what I assumed anyway. The window was rolled down along the coastline and I could feel the sea breeze blowing my eyes and hair back, taken aback by its power.

The first thing I caught a glimpse of was the sea. Blue and sparkling, the sun high above beating down on the cool water. I wriggled with excitement, not knowing if I should look at the scenery through glass or with the breeze up close.

The sand dunes started building up around the car as we slowed down onto the carpark. The wind blew speckles of sand across the tarmac. We stopped with a holt, opposite the largest hill made from sand, yellow speckles forever and ever.

The door was opened and I leaped outside feeling my whole body wrapped in a blanket of wind gust looking at the world around me. Children with their families carrying towels and beach toys, people all walking in one big line across the large sand dune and disappearing over the other side.

I was patient, but all I wanted more than anything was to run and dig to my hearts content. What seems like a lifetime and we were off, our little family tramping along difficult to walk sand.

We all marched up the hill surrounded by other families walking horizonal. As we reached the very top everything could be seen from above. Crowds of people sat on deck chairs and building sandcastles, others dipping their feet in the icy sea waters. I sided down, one set of feet ahead of the other until I reached the bottom where the children were running, they were halfway down while I looked up. The other adults sliding down soon after.

We camped, not in the centre of the sun’s rays, but just behind one of the smaller dunes. They stuck their umbrella into the floor, lay down mats and two chairs squirting cream on one and other.

Father stared down at me and smiled. “You can go, but not too far.”

I sped off sprinting across the shoreline where I dipped my feet into the water. Freezing, but it was a good feeling. I knew last time I came to the beach I tried to taste the water. It was just water I thought, it doesn’t look that different from the water at home...

Yeah, I was wrong. The last time I took a drink from the water, I was vomiting all the way home. Not the greatest journey home.

There were other friends bounding across the sand as happy as I was. Some with toys, others wanted to chat to me. I did, I like to make small conversation with the locals, it shows your friendly.

There was a group just a few meters away gathered, circling around one patch of sand. I moved closer trying to get a glimpse of what was going on but it was impossible, others began shoving me away. Anyway, it was nice to have alone time. I dug in one location getting my body dirty and dusty.

I clawed my way into a tiny part of the sand, sticking my face right into the ground. Something white gleamed at me catching the sun’s rays. I dug with more determination now using both sides of claws to scratch my way through. More and more white started appearing until it resembled something I knew well. A bone.

This was the most fun I had ever since I started coming to the beach. I wasn’t with others but I was peaceful on my own chewing this wonderful bone. I wanted to show the others what I’d discovered, normally they don’t seem to be that excited with objects I find around the house but the moment I make bouncing along holding the bone everyone seemed to stare at me in fascination.

They wanted it for themselves, at first, I was strong, my jaw was too strong for their hands, but trying again and again somehow always does the trick. They stared at the object in fascination twisting it around every angle until their faces dropped, the same face they made when Aunt Lily died last year...

They told the children to wait were they were, following a group of people around where the others were also digging. I followed; one large policeman hovered over the others.

“What’s going on?” I asked one of the small ones passing through.

“I don’t know, but I think they’ve hit jackpot, lots of bones just piled up.”

“I just found one over there.” I gestured to the digging spot still disturbed from digging. “But they took it off me.”

“I don’t know then...” They tiptoed off down the shore. I moved closer to the other dig site where my family held the bone up to the police officer.

“What’s going on?” I asked a large scruffy old one.

“We’ve all found treasure! We found a human made from eating bones!”