by Kai Strand –
The piercing cry of the gulls made Amanda wince. She watched three of them hang in the air like a mobile, their white and gray bodies bobbed up and down on the gusty wind coming off the ocean.
As if it heard her thoughts, a cold finger of water rolled across the sand and trailed along her bare foot making her shiver. She smiled down at the foamy sneak as it crept back to where it came from. She’d never been to the ocean before and there was so much to see all at once. It was so vast and open and powerful that it frightened her at the same time it beckoned to her.
Amanda glanced at her mom, reclining on a towel laid out on the sand. Mom shaded her eyes with a hand and jutted her chin toward the ocean. “Put your toes in the water, Mandy.”
Amanda turned to the water, which tumbled up the sand as if asking her to play. She watched as it teased her by stopping just short of her feet before backtracking again. Her toes wriggled in anticipation. The toe prints left in the sand filled with tiny pools of water. Chasing the retreating tide, Amanda ran forward a couple steps and stopped, afraid to meet the water where it rolled back in on itself.
“That’s right,” Mom said. “Not too far, honey.”
The rocking motion of the sea tipped in Amanda’s direction again, and a thin layer of white foam and water spread across the flattened tan colored sand and pooled around Amanda’s feet. She squealed in surprise at the shock of coldness. A seagull mimicked her cry.
As the water retreated, it pulled the top layer of sand into the ocean. Her feet were buried in a cold sandy paste. She wiggled just her big toes and watched the sand erupt and break away.
Freeing her feet, she ran along the water line, in and out of the ebb and flow of the tide. The salty taste on the air filled her nostrils. A fine spray coated the sun-warmed skin of her arms.
A rumbling noise shook the ground, and Amanda watched with wide eyes as a wave curled over itself and crashed into the sand. Almost instantly the water spread flat as if its mother told it to calm down. A wave crashed farther out to sea, feeding the spread of the tide and fueling it toward Amanda. Smaller waves rose up from the water just in front of her, like a little sister trying to copy a big brother’s reckless play.
Suddenly Amanda saw watery horses rising from the tide, shaking their long foamy manes, water splashing around their hooves as they galloped along with her. Together they ran up the beach, getting closer and closer to the sunbathers. Then they would turn and race back toward the ocean. Amanda wouldn’t have to wait long before the next herd of wild water horses ran out of the approaching tide to join her in chasing a flock of seagulls digging for crabs in the sand.
Sometimes the horses were faster than Amanda and got slightly ahead of her. She’d kick up geysers of water as she ran through almost knee-deep water to catch up with the lead horse.
One horse rose out of the tide adorned in seaweed as if dressed for a parade. He high-stepped slowly up the sand, showing off his decorated mane. As he pranced forward he made a shushing sound that sounded like the cheers and claps of a large parade crowd.
A draft horse pulled a long tree branch from the ocean as it trudged up the length of beach. He deposited the branch before going back for another, and Amanda squatted beside the waterlogged branch. The bark was dark and swollen. Little bits of sea grass had snagged in the splintered wood. There were no leaves on it. It must have broken off of a very large tree because when she lay in the cold sand next to it, its tip was past her head and its base was below her feet.
The next horse ran alongside her leg. His nose felt like a dog’s cold wet nose as he nudged against her waist and startled her into a sitting position. As the herd retreated again, the sand ran out from under her legs, and she giggled as she seemed to sink.
Her eyes grew wide when she saw the horses turn quickly to race back toward her. She scrambled onto her feet and scurried up the beach before they had a chance to soak her with their wetness.
The next horse frolicked ahead of Amanda and then turned and dropped something at her feet before tumbling back into the ocean. Amanda picked up a shiny black shell. The inside was a silvery gray and the outside had tiny barnacles stuck into grooves cut along its oval shape. She sniffed it and wrinkled her nose at the briny fish smell.
Running to her mother, she dropped the shell on her empty towel. “Can I keep it?”
Her mother squinted down at the shell and shrugged. “Sure, if you’d like.”
Amanda hopped from foot to foot, surprised by the heat of the dry sand. “Thanks!” she cried before running back toward the cool compacted wet sand. Sand clung to her lower legs wherever the water had touched, giving the impression she wore gritty sand socks. She ran into the surf just deep enough to let the water wash the sand socks away.
Fewer horses rose from the water. The ocean calmly lapped up the beach, not running as far or as fast. Amanda ran her hand through the sea foam mane of the last horse and jogged with it back to the ocean. She stood just out of reach of the tide waving to the water horses, and they swam farther out to sea.
A seagull cried. The water shushed. Amanda’s horse race was over.
the end.
Question Time
- Where were Amanda and her mom?
- What ran with Amanda along the beach?
- How did the water horses race?
- What did Amanda find in the sand?
