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A Day at the Beach
A Day at the Beach
Nothing beats the feeling of being underwater. When I’m underwater it feels like all of the weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Time stops, sounds come to a halt, along with my racing thoughts, and I just, exist. Separated from the outside world. It’s a safe place, where none of my problems can reach me. Water just wraps you up like a warm blanket. It engulfs you completely until no area of your body isn’t covered in it. You feel weightless, because you are weightless. You just float there, and that is the feeling of pure bliss. When you’re underwater you aren’t just underwater, you are the water. The water is you, you and the water become one. Nothing can distort the peaceful state of the water and I, not even the sounds of my breathing can reach me there. Because I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t- I gasp as I breach the surface, inhaling as much air as humanly possible possible.
The chatter of the outside world fills my ears with agony. Seagulls chirping obnoxiously loud, everybody on the beach talking over each other, waves crashing on to the sandy shore, cars, airplanes; you name it. I quickly snap back to reality. The outside world overwhelms me, and I long to return to my underwater world. I rise out of the turquoise waves and slowly trudge through the water and sand. I reach the shore and I begin to journey across the golden sand. Straight ahead, I spot my destination. A bright white food cart is sitting at the end of the beach, just waiting patiently for me to arrive. I briefly stop at my umbrella to retrieve my money from my bag, and then I continue on. My feet land one after the other onto the powdery sand, grains of sand wedged between my toes, warm and soothing to the touch. The searing sun shines down harshly onto my tanned skin, shimmering in the sky, providing me with an absurd amount of heat. I continue to stroll through the sand, and I slowly begin to creep up on the food cart. So close. Almost there. I can nearly taste it…
“Hello, what would you like to order?,” says a man that looks around his twenties. I respond quickly.
“Hi there, I would like to get a blue raspberry shaved ice.”
“Okay, that’ll be 2.50.”
I hand him three crumpled up dollar bills, he takes them and begins to make my order. I watch longingly as he scoops mounds of shredded ice into a small paper cone. He then lifts up a bottle of blue liquid and proceeds to drizzle it over the ice.
“Here ya go,” he says as he hands me the cone.
“Thank you,” I respond. I really mean it.
As soon as I turn away from the food cart, I devour the flavored ice. Cool relief runs through my mouth, and then through my entire body. The taste is magnificent. Absolutely delicious. I finish the entire thing in around 30 seconds, and I start to head back to the ocean. I cross the sandy border between land and sea, and then I splash my way into the waves. I submerge my entire body in the salty water, and time stops again. Absolute silence fills my ears. I feel blissful once again. I decide that this time I’m going to swim further out into the ocean, since usually I just float around in the shore. I start swimming, dipping underneath the waves and gliding through the water. It takes around 5 minutes to reach the sandbar. I keep myself afloat for a while, pondering if I should pass it, before I do. I keep swimming until I decide that I’ve reached a good point to stop.
I dip underwater and look around. Starfish and coral speckle the sea floor, adding a burst of color to the otherwise drab sand. Small tropical fish are swimming everywhere, chasing each other and fluttering around in the coral. I see sand dollars drifting across, their tentacles swooshing around and disturbing the sand, making the water murky. It’s a beautiful sight. As I float there, just taking it all in, a large dark figure whooshes past me. I turn abruptly, and search all around me to see what’s there. But there isn’t anything there. Nothing in sight. I turn my attention back to the little fish, and then it happens again. I hear a swoosh and something huge passes around me. I start to get scared, and I get the feeling that something is stalking me. I search around myself once again, and again, nothing is there. I rise up from the depth of the ocean, and inhale. I then drop back underwater again. I keep my eyes closed until I’m completely submerged, and then, my eyelids flutter open.
Just floating there, waiting to greet me, is a great white. It just stares at me, baring it’s huge array of sharp teeth right in my face, grinning. My jaw drops and I try to stay as still as possible. I’m in absolute shock, so it isn’t that hard to do. I realize that sooner or later I’m going to have to move when I swim up to get air. I start to panic. Fear fills my entire body, spreading from my heart and trailing throughout all of my limbs. I start to feel as if I need to breathe. I need air, badly. I hold my breath for as long as possible but it starts to get extremely hard to do. The shark is still staring at me. I think to myself, maybe he’s blind? Maybe he hasn’t even seen me yet. I turn my head as slowly as possible, to take one last look around. I look to my right and immediately I’m panicking even more than I already was.
All around me, cornering me from all sides, is an entire pack of sharks. All of them staring at me intensely. At this point, I’m completely out of breath. I know I’m going to die, there’s no way I couldn’t. I give up, and I let the salty ocean water fill my lungs. I close my eyes.
I open my eyes.
“That was a weird dream,” I think to myself.