Summer Recollections #1 - The Beach

 

            It started with five girls when the sun was high in the sky and the sand was scorching on their bare feet.  They circled around the log that was more than half-buried in the sand, planning its excavation with the precision of engineers.  Then the real work began – five pairs of hands digging in the sand, then the dirt, then the mud until fingernails were broken and caked with mud.  Despite the thick layers of sunscreen that the mothers had slathered on their daughters before releasing them, faces and shoulders soon shined red.  Two of the girls abandoned the mission when one end of the log was still covered in sand, but the three other persevered, saying little as they conserved their energy for the endless digging.

            As the shadows from the tree line crept closer to the three girls, a woman came strolling along the beach.  Her dog strained on his leash towards the girls, his interest piqued by the ditches that had been dug along the sides of the log.  The woman approached the girls in order to satisfy her dog’s curiosity as well as her own.

            “Are you trying to dig that out?” she asked, her voice openly skeptical.  The girls paused their digging, miffed at being interrupted in the midst of their important task.

            “Yeah, we’re going to drag it into the lake so we can float on it,” explained the tallest of the girls, their natural leader.  The woman laughed, winding the leash around her hand to pull her dog back from the log.

            “You’ll never get it into the lake, it’s way too big.  Look, the one end’s still in the sand, you could have another five feet buried there.”  She shook her head at the silly girls.  Three pairs of determined eyes glared back at her.

            “We’ve pulled out tons of logs before.  Logs as big as this one, logs that were almost totally buried, even one all the way up by the trees.”  This time it was the smallest girl who spoke up, her usually quiet voice easily heard over the sound of the waves.  The woman frowned down at the stubborn girls as she debated how much time she going to waste trying to dissuade them from their fool’s errand.  She sighed in defeat.

            “Alright then.  But it’s a shame to waste your time, and to go home to your parents all dirty and tired.”  She gave them a final stern look before continuing down the beach, hoping that at some point the girls would remember her words and come to their senses.

            The three girls watched her walk away, exchanged a single glance of disgust, then returned to their task with renewed fervor.  Dirt was flung indiscriminately, palms slammed against the side of the log, and raw hands heaved at the end that was sticking up above the sand.  There were gasps of excitement the first time the log moved and high-fives when the buried end was uncovered.  Finally, through a mutual understanding that came not through words but from hours of experience working together, the three girls stopped digging and stood back to study their work.

            “It’s ready,” the tallest girl announced.  She and her two friends lined up alongside the log so that they were facing the lake, their final destination.  They each pressed their hands against the log and dug their feet into the sand like sprinters readying themselves for a race.

            “One…two…three…push!”  The girls threw all of their diminutive weight against the log, straining as slowly it rolled up and out of its pit.  There were a few seconds of celebration before they got back to work, rolling the cumbersome log to the water’s edge.  The girls gasped in relief as the cool water finally slapped against their hot, sand-encrusted legs.  They moved to the other side of the log, and with a few final pulls it was fully freed from the sand.

            The true celebration began now, squeals, cheers, and laughter as they guided the log further out into the water.  Once the water was above their waists, the girls pulled themselves onto the log.  It took many tries for all three girls to successfully balance on the log at once, but knocking each other off and tumbling back into the water was all part of the fun.  Back on the beach, the three girls were distant shapes bobbing along on top of their log while a woman taking her dog for a late walk stopped to watch.