Salter's End
Day 5: Low Tide
DAY 5: Low Tide
Tuesday 29th July
The children always played on the beach.
Every morning when the tide went out the appeared, with a fierce energy that only comes with youth.
They built things. Elaborate structures made of sand, stones, and driftwood, covered with seaweed. Structures that would eventually be swept away with the rolling waves.
Rachel walked the beach with her coffee that Tuesday morning, and paused to watch them, a smile on her lips.
There were five of them in a group, ranging from six to twelve, at a guess. They worked together, passing stones and driftwood between them, with a kind of quiet that felt unsettling, at odds with their earlier frenzied excitement.
“What are you building?” she asked the nearest child, a boy who was kneeling in the sand and held a serious expression. Taking his work seriously, she thought with a smile.
He looked up at her. “It has to be done before the tide comes back in,” he said, not an answer.
“Why?” she asked.
He looked at her again, with the type of expression that said he had explained this many times before.
“Because it’s practice,” he replied.
“Practice for what?” she asked.
He didn’t answer and just continued with his work.
Rachel looked up at the beach, noticing that there were more structures than she had noticed before; they all formed a pattern across the beach.
She took a sip of her coffee and walked on, telling herself she was overthinking.
See you tomorrow for Day 6.
Emma-Louise
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