Short Fiction: Beach Days

Title: BEACH DAYS.

D A Y 1

The beach resort was just up ahead, I could see the palm trees with leaves dancing in the wind. They seemed to be beckoning to people to come their way. We had left home, left home to have some time to ourselves. I wanted to be away for a little time, maybe I’d recover from the daily shock of family reality. I thought I was going crazy, and I was, because I was going to a resort for a couple of days with my sister’s family and not my parents as we had initially planned. Oh, but I wanted to be alone, to rethink, to plan, to dream, to sleep, to wake, to rest from myself.

I pulled out my wallet as we talked with the cabin caretaker who was helping us offload, “hey, I wanna take a separate room from the cabin. You have a one room cabin space?” “No Darling, no need, Mark and I here will take one room and you can stay with the children, I don’t mind. It’s a big cabin anyway,” my sister, Dannie, said kindly.”I’m not a baby, come on, I can pay for my own space. The children are lovely but I just need this lone time right now,” I said.
“O! December, don’t be silly,” she said almost sounding like our mom. “Lone time?” She shook her head and Mark shook his head too. “We came here to have some fun.”
“You did. I wanna chill,” I said signing another receipt.

The resort was lovely, with the dancing pines and the thatched shelter spots under the beautiful sun. The cabins, the eatery and a couple of other small structures were at the extreme, well away from the water. The water itself was a large body that ran out to sea in the distance. A few boats were at the shore looking out to sea where the sunshine was most beautiful. Then away from the water to the right were the stands with the thatched overheads where things such as,  ice cream, candy, cake, buns, pie, and juices were sold. I felt the sun on my skin as I walked on the sand down to the beach water. The relaxing wind blew in my ears and I felt so trilled that I took off my shoes and walked bare footed so I could feel the sand between my toes. Mark, Dannie and their two children were on the other side of the beach. I didn’t want to stay with them.

Now standing over the water I let the awe of it’s big blue sight get a grip of me. This was ideal for me, standing under a setting sun and staring out at the blue water. Oh, how marvelous. I stood there for what seemed like forever and just watched the sunshine glitter on the water surface as the horizon spread out like a thin silvery necklace. After a while, my feet began to hurt so I turned around to walk towards the tall trees where I could lie down. As I turned around I saw a fellow sitting on a beach seat, leaned backwards, relaxed and watching me interestingly. I came up close to him and settled down.
“Loved what you saw?” He asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?” I answered.
“Felt like that too my first time. It’s getting to be a pretty old site to me now.”
I took a glance at him. He wore a clean cotton shirt, milk in color, a black leather short and sandals. His complexion was not so white, but, he wasn’t bad. He smiled at me but I didn’t feel to smile back. I opened my basket to take out my sausage.
“Felt good to see you stare at the water like that, just don’t jump in if you can’t swim,” he said.
I chuckled, sausage stuffed in my mouth, “what a fellow!” I thought.
After eating, I turned around and he was gone. I didn’t see him for the rest of that day except for when we ate at the eatery, I saw him walk in and buy a meal in a leather bag.

D A Y 2

The following morning, the cabin seemed rather humid and damp, so I opened the window wide and looked outside to the small beach camp. Dannie and Mark were out talking with the caretaker and the fellow from the beach. I put a leather jacket on and walked out of the cabin towards them.
“December…,” Dannie called fondly on seeing me. “Here, this is my younger sister December,” she introduced me to the fellow. “December, this is Philip,” she said to me.
“Hello Philip, nice to meet you again,” I said shaking his hand. They were cold and stiff.
“You too. Morning,” he said looking me straight in the eye.
“Oh, you already met?” Dannie asked.
“At the beach yesterday,” I said putting both hands in the side pockets of my jean trousers. I yawned. It was cold.
Philip looked from my pocket to my face and then to Dannie. “Who’s up for some hot morning tea?” He asked jovially.
“Oh, we certainly are!” Dannie said excitedly. She turned around to the children running around with other camping kids. “Children! Come on for breakfast!” Her fingers caressed her long brown wavy hair, “Oh, December honey, you don’t look so excited.”
“Oh, she’ll be, soon enough. It’s our mission to spread cheer to our few visitors. Our little Heaven’s Beach don’t get much attraction as do the other resorts. But the few visitors we get, we value,” Philip said. He put one hand in his side pocket, “You all should visit the museum, it’s a little place were we tell you stories,” he said. Dannie laughed. “December will surely find something to think about after that visit.”

At the breakfast table no one spoke, Mark kept clearing his throat. “Darling, is that a cold coming on?” Dannie finally asked him.
“I don’t want to think that honey.” Mark put down his tea cup and looked at Philip, “this place has a resident doctor?”
“Yes.”
“I might need a medicine.”
“Oh.” Philip nodded, “We often have some guests who catch a cold in the first few nights too. It’s common, especially if you never were used to sea weather, yes.” He put his empty cup down, “I think I did justice to breakfast,” he said. We smiled as we looked around the table, we were all through, except for the kids. “It was a lovely breakfast with you all, I hope we can do this again?” Philip looked around the table at our faces. “Every morning if possible,” he said looking straight at me. I turned my tea cup upside down on the tray.
“We,” Mark started calmly as the waiter cleared the table, “will be going to the museum. Do you mind showing us the way?” He asked Philip.
“With all pleasure,” he said pushing his seat backwards to stand up. We all followed him.

“This is Zack, he’s in charge,” Philip told us as we walked up to a man in the museum waiting room.
“Hello Zack,” Mark said to him.
Zack showed us around.
“We have often found washed ashore or in the shallow waters some magnificent looking sea shells or other objects. Other objects and fossils of sea were carefully selected and collected for the museum,” Zack said as he showed us the display cases. “These are the coquina shells,” he pointed, “this is the sunray venus, the crossed-barred venus, the dosinia, the pen shell, the calico scallop, the…”
“Can I have one?” Ella, my little niece interrupted.
“Some guests at the resort have actually stumbled on one or two of such shells, we usually let them keep what they find. You know what they say, finders keepers,” he smiled. He stopped in front of the shell shelf, “this is a special one. It’s a lucky shell. It’s what we call it here.”
“Why?” Dannie asked.
“It’s a lucky shell because it has seven colors, not all shells have up to seven colors. And it’s shape, I’ve never seen anything like it..” Zack said peering at the shell in admiration.
“Really?” Mark asked rhetorically.
“Oh yes. But, you can believe what you want,” Zack added. “It might interest you to know that this shell was found the year this resort was established, six years ago. One more of such has been found here too by a man who came visiting as you.”
“So, did this man get lucky?” Mark asked in a probing manner.
“Oh honey..” Dannie said.
“He moved to London after that visit, I can’t exactly tell.”
“Daddy, I want a shell,” Ella said pulling Mark on his trouser.

The day ran fast after we went to see the shallow waters on the speed boats. We didn’t know it till it was evening.

D A Y 3

The gentle morning breeze blew as I kept on tapping on the cabin door were Dannie and Mark stayed. Dannie finally answered the door, her pajamas still on, “Oh honey, you up so early?” She yawned.
“You asked me to. What happened to our nice morning stroll?”
“Oh snap, we forgot. Mark and the kids are still fast asleep, see?” She opened the door slightly for me to look in. “And that darling fellow, Philip, we promised him breakfast. He’d be waiting, you should run along for us all,” Dannie suggested.
“What?”
“Yes. Make up for us, come on. We’ll catch you for a late stroll, or maybe not. Mark and I would be at the clinic for his cold.”
“Oh, snap!” Was all I could say.

Stepping into the fancy tea shop made of a log cabin decked with colorful flowers, I saw Philip waiting at a small round table. He was very calm as he watched me come and take a seat. “Slept in?” He asked.
“Quite.”
“And your family?”
“In the cabin.”
“Oh. Morning.”
“You too.”
“Tea or coffee?”
“Tea please.”
“Tea..” He mused as he signaled to the tea boy. “Slept well?”
“Like a log. Thanks.” I said as I helped the tea boy to serve myself. “They’ll be at the clinic this morning for a medicine for Mark’s cold. His colds are usually more severe than normal.”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that.”
“Yes,” I sipped and had a bite of the flatbread.
“Well, I noticed, you don’t bless the food before eating,” Philip said staring at me.
“Oh, do you?”
“I do, to eat is God’s gift, we ought to be grateful for it too.”
“Oh,” I put down my cup for him to bless the breakfast. He did. “Amen,” I said traditionally.
“Amen,” he said and then unwrapped his biscuit. “Hope that wasn’t offensive to you?”
“No. I’m fine with it.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smile. We began to eat in silence, only watching others as they came in and went out of the tea shop occasionally.
It didn’t take long before we were through with our breakfast of tea with milk and flatbread.
“You want something else to chew on?” Philip asked.
“No, I’m full.”
He asked the tea boy to clear the table.
“You’re temperate, it’s a good trait,” he said.
“How would you know?”
“Does it matter?” He laughed.
I shook my head and picked up my cell phone to check the time.
“You’re leaving? What’s next? You’d join them at the clinic?”
“I’d rather not. Besides, they should be done there by now. They could be at the eatery. I’ll just have a stroll,” I said pushing my seat back to get up.
“All by yourself? It’s no fun,” he got up too.
“It was a nice breakfast with you Philip,” I said.
“You too. Tomorrow?”
“Again?” I asked him, then I thought about it for a second. That would actually be nice. The tea shop was a lovely place. “Alright,” I said.
“Alright,” He said. “So, where will you stroll to? Come, I’ll show you a spot you might like,” he offered. He led the way out of the shop. The warm sun hit our faces. “Oh, a sun hat?” He asked pointing at the straw hats hanging from a thatched roof of a small beach shed.
“I could use the warmth, it was a pretty cold night,” I said pressing my cheeks in with my open palms. “Who are you exactly? The beach what?” I asked.
He chuckled glancing back at me. “What?” I asked.
“Come on, we’re almost there,” he walked ahead of me to a group of palms growing together a stone throw away from the water. He entered their center, “come on, in,” he told me. I stood away.
“Hey, what about cobwebs?” I asked looking up above his head.
He chuckled, “there’s none.”
“Okay,” I stepped in past the first palm. “I’m okay here,” I said.
“Okay, look down,” he said looking at the ground. When I looked on the ground, I saw different types of tiny shell pieces around the foot of each palm. Some where green with algae, others brown, some orange while others were a clean white color.
“Aww! Amazing. They are so beautiful,” I said.
“Right? They get trapped at the foot of these palms as they are washed ashore from the strong waves. Sometimes I think that it’s the children playing around that leave them here.”
“Oh,” I nodded. The morning sun glittered on the misty shells so that they sparkled with fine twinkles.

Philip and I walked up to the beach camp talking and laughing. “It’s camp fire night tonight, I hope you wouldn’t retire to your room so quickly?” He asked.
“What are we gonna do?”
“We’d set fire to some things, if you have any, bring’em.”
“Really? I only packed important stuff. What? You want me to set my clothes on fire?” I asked.
He laughed. “We’ll have a little barbecue too, so.”
Ella came running up to us.
“December, Mum’s been looking everywhere for you.”
“Oh my, I was at the beach. I did later have lunch at the eatery though. I got some candy sticks for you and Dan,” I handed her the candy bag.
“Yea! All mine!” She shouted, but Dan already came running.
“Where mine?” He asked.
“Ella has it,” I told him. They both ran off towards their parents who were having fun gathering the sticks for the camp fire with others. Dan, two years older than Ella, yet Ella rules him like a senior.
“We’d better join them,” Philip said walking ahead to gather sticks.

It was night fall. We finally set the fire and popped champagne for the guests. “To Heaven’s Beach Resort!” A man raised a toast.
“To Heaven’s Beach!” The others raised their glasses.
We all sat around on logs and conversed as some men did the barbecue and served it round. Philip leaned his head close to mine and whispered.
“See the fellow who made the toast?”
“Yes.”
“He owns this resort. He doesn’t like to show it, he just mingles with his guests without saying a word to them most of the time.”
“That’s mighty kind of him,” I said.
“He’s a simple man. His name’s Franklin Bob. He’s father built this resort and handed it to him after the resort’s launching. He’s not an eager man, so far he’s added only that tea shop to the place.. It’s called Bob’s Tea Shop, if you cared to ever look at the post.”
“I have,” I said.
“Well, one day Heaven’s Beach will be popular,” Philip smiled.
“Yes,” I agreed with a smile too.
“You have a pretty smile. It reminds me of a little girl I used to know, she hardly smiles, but when she does, you just gotta smile back cause it’s too pretty to ignore.”
“Thanks,” I smiled.
“She talked to me one day and it changed my life,” he said with a nod. “She had such wonderful Christian faith. She’s…” He looked into my eyes with a meek smile.
“I’m sorry,” I said with understanding.
“It’s okay, heaven is a better place than earth,” he said.
“How would you know?”
“No one will be stuck on this earth forever you know. We’ll all go to our place someday. So, we ought to be ready, and have that in mind cause earth wouldn’t matter when we shut our eyes. Only one thing would matter..” He said looking up to the stars.
“What?” I asked.
“Our faith. What we believed and lived for. Never forget that.”
“Oh.”
“I know you don’t believe,” he paused and looked at me. He held my right palm in his, “come”, he said standing up. We walked away a little from the fire place and from others. Just a distance into the dark he stopped. “Listen…” He whispered in my ear and waited, staring into the night.
“To what?” I asked.
“To whatever you can hear,” he said.
I listened, all I heard was the happy voices of the people behind us and then the sound of the soft wind.
“What did you hear?” He suddenly asked.
“The wind, and voices.”
“Listen again.” He said.
I did. I heard no new thing.
“What did you hear?” He asked.
“Nothing,” I said shrugging my shoulders.
“Good, nothing. You can feel the emptiness of the world. What if we emptied out all physical things, what would remain?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“That’s what death does, it empties out the physical so that only the spiritual remains. You must be conscious of that. You are not only what you see, you have a spirit that cannot be exhausted. It lives on, in heaven or hell. The spirit man has inside is what makes him man, special and unique. You can never truly die,” he looked into my eyes. “So, you must prepare by embracing the one person that will matter and remain when the physical is emptied out. If anyone ever got emptied void of God, he will be lost.”
I looked up to the stars for a minute and wondered a bit.

D A Y 4

I sat under a palm tree watching the wind move on the water surface. Dan and Ella were making sand castles on the sand and whistling to mimic the blue bird chirping on the palm above our heads. I was dozing a bit but I tried to keep my eyes open, diverting my attention to a set of ladies suntanning themselves. Suddenly everything went black and when I opened my eyes again, Ella was trickling water down my face.
“Ella…”
“Sorry Aunt, but you slept off and you were talking in your sleep,” Ella said.
“What?” I shrug my shoulders.
“Yes, you were saying, ‘teeth, Marina…, teeth….’ So, who’s Marina and what happened to her teeth?” Dan asked. I burst out laughing.
“Really?” I threw my head backwards laughing. I sat up, “I’ll just walk around a bit,” I stood, stretched myself and yawned. I began to walk away from the kids, kicking the sand with my feet as I mumbled.. “Huh, Marina..” I laughed. I looked up ahead and there, a stone throw away from me was the group of palms. I walked up to them and looked around their foot. I saw the blue bird fly towards me and perch on the palm over me, it began to sing. Was it following me? I walked down to the water so that it just touched my toes. I was staring at the horizon again when something touched my feet, when I looked down, it was a lovely sea shell, washed ashore in the shallow waters. I picked it up and the water on it glittered in the sun. Suddenly I was counting the colors on it. “Seven?” I mused. “Or is it?” I doubted. I counted it again. “Oh,” I grinned, “I need to show Philip,” I said hurrying away.

I saw Philip a few minutes later walking out of the eatery, “Philip! Philip!”
He stopped, “good to see you happy,” he grinned.
“Look at this. Is it…?” I handed him the shell. He stared at it and turned it over slowly to see the stripes of colors. He smiled.
“It is,” he said.
“Really? A lucky shell?”
He chuckled, “did you find this? This is wonderful, you wanna show it to Zack?”

Zack studied and sniffed the shell. “This is it,” he assured. “Heaven’s third lucky shell. Where did you find it?”
“It washed ashore at my feet,” I said. Zack and Philip stared at me weirdly for a second.
“Okay,” Zack said.
“Can I keep it?” I asked.
“Of course, it’s yours.” He handed it back to me. “We should toast!” Zack said going to the refrigerator to get a bottle of wine. He brought three glasses in a tray and poured out the wine. “To December!” He raised his glass.
“To December!” Philip raised his.
“To me,” I smiled raising mine. We drank and put the glasses down.
“Sit,” Zack gestured across the room to a bench. We all sat. He looked at my hand, “you know it’s fragile and rough handling could break it,” Zack said.
“So, who invented lucky shell?” I asked studying the shell in my hand. Philip chuckled.
“I did, actually,” Zack answered.
“So, it’s not really lucky?” I asked. They laughed.
“We already toasted on it. But, these shells are my favorite. They teach me how thoughtful God is, to create all things beautiful… Even a shell,” Zack said. “What’s that song again? All things bright and beautiful…” He started.
“All creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all…” Philip took it up.
“He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell, how great is God almighty, who has made all things well…” They both sang happily. Their happiness seemed to spread across the room as they sang and laughed. They seemed to have a special kind of joy. I wondered.

When I returned to the kids, they were playing in the shallow water, “run! Run! The wave is coming!” I yelled. They ran for their dear lives, but when they stopped and looked back, there was no wave coming and I was laughing really hard. I was happy.

D A Y 5

At dawn we were packing our bags into the jeep. We were leaving the beach, my beach days were over. I looked here and there as Dannie slammed the boot shut. “I don’t get it, I told Philip to be here, but he’s not,” I told Dannie.
“Your boyfriend now?” She asked.
“No. Far from that. I just wanted to say goodbye,” I said worriedly folding my arms.
“Mummy, Mummy, I can’t find my pink sandals!” Ella cried out with alarm running to Dannie from the emptied cabin room.
“You sure you came with them honey?” Dannie asked looking down at Ella’s sad face.
“I’m positive I did,” Ella replied in a teary voice.
“Well, where did you leave them?” Dannie asked.
“I don’t know.”
“The beach sand? Did you lose them in the water? Where did you last take them off?”
“Well,” Ella wiped her tears, “I wore them yesterday. They are my favorite sandals.”
“Oh honey,” Dannie coaxed wiping her tears. “December, can you take her to the beach for me? Help her find her sandals. Dan and I would go get Mark, I don’t know what’s taking him so long to sign off with the caretaker.”
“Let’s go,” I took Ella by the hand and we walked down to the beach. My guess was that she left it under the tree where she built sand castles with Dan. On getting there, we dug a little in the wet sand and there they were, her pair of pink sandals, buried in the sand. We got them out. “Great, now we have to wash our hands,” I said as I stood upright looking around, hoping to catch a sight of Philip, maybe. On returning to Dannie and Mark after washing our hands, they were already in the car ready to drive off, the engine whining.
“Did you find them?” Dannie stuck her head out of the side window to ask.
“Yes!” Ella answered happily, raising her sandals. She hopped inside the car.
I stood for some seconds on the ground looking towards the tea shop.
“December, the engine is running,” Dannie told me looking back at me.
I got in the car and shut the door. I looked back and I saw the caretaker waving at us as we drove off. My countenance fell, where was Philip? Well, everyone waved back at the caretaker, he was a nice fellow. Mark liked him particularly.
“Did you see Philip this morning?” I asked Mark and Dannie.
“No,” Mark said.
“No honey, he must have gone somewhere else on an emergency,” Dannie said.
I sat back into the car seat, threw my head backwards as I recalled that I never took his contact. What emergency happened? I thought. Well, I hoped that one day I would return to Heaven’s Beach. Hoped.

It took half the day to drive all the way back to our home. Mark and Dannie dropped me off in front of my parents home. “Say hi to Mum for me!” Dannie yelled after me as I walked towards the house with my bag. “Hope you had fun?!”
“I did!” I replied not looking back. Then I looked back and grinned, Ella was blowing me kisses from the back seat as they drove off. I waved till they were far down the street. “Oh what a week..” I said pushing the front door open.
“December!”Mother shouted on seeing me. “I missed you! Can you fix us supper?”

That night I invited Marina for a sleep over at my place. As she walked in my room with a broad smile, her cute incisor teeth stuck out a bit beneath her upper lip. She was not a close friend, I didn’t like her much before, though we knew each other quite well, being in the same neighborhood and all.. And attending the same college too. She seemed a weirdo, but she was charming. She was a Christian.
“Hey… How was the trip?” She asked coming to sit on the bed. I had only told her about the trip when I the texted her while in the car with Dannie and Mark, it was then I asked if she was free for a sleep over. Luckily, she said yes.
“Great,” I grinned and then paused looking up. “I learnt a few things about God, not in the usual way that I’ve known. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
“Really? Mind sharing?” She asked kindly.
“Well,” I rolled on the bed and sat up. “I met this guy, Philip, he’s a Christian,” I started.
“Yeah?” she leaned forward with full attention.
We talked on and on till it was past bed time. I never knew I could talk with her that much.
“Well, you had a wonderful beach experience! Next time I’m coming with you,” Marina said and laughed. “Seems like you wanna know more about God all of a sudden. Seems he’s reaching for your heart right now…” She paused. “You see, there’s a place in the human heart that only God can fill. Many people try to fill it with the love of men or women, or money or children, or fame, but that lacuna is God’s own place. He completes you because he loves you. And,” she sat upright as though to think of how to put the statement, “if you wanna be a lawyer, you’ll have to go to law school. If you wanna be doctor, you’ll have to spend years reading medicine. But, if you want salvation, you just have to believe, it’s free.” She took a deep breath and raised her shoulders expectantly like a child, waiting for me to say something.
“I just wanna be happy all the time. I get tired of being disappointed and weak. I guess being happy is a lot of work,” I said.
“Yeah, when you’re doing it on your own. I don’t know a lot about you, but I know that there’s a lot God wants to do for you, like giving you his joy. It’s a perfect joy. All you have to do is believe,” Marina said convincingly.
I sighed heavily. She smiled. I looked at the shell in my hand.. “all things beautiful…” I mused to myself smiling. “It’s why I called you here.” I looked at Marina. “Tell me, how do I get to know God?”
Marina grinned sweetly, “it’s called being born again.”

After we prayed together that night, well, I found out that I can always be happy and rejoice, not because things are always fine in the world around me, but because Jesus loves me, and he loves you. And, I will never forget my beach days, neither will I forget YOU.

BIO

Peace Nkeiruka Maduako is a writer from Imo state, Nigeria. Since September, 2020, she has had four of her poems and a short story published in an online magazine, as well as a blog. She has over 15 of her poems published on her personal Facebook page, PeaceGirl works. She’s currently a student while she continues to write fiction and poems. If you would like to reach out to Peace, you may do so through her Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/peace.nkeiruka.56.

Thank you.