Beach Scene

Yep. The second blogfest. Don't worry... I have less to say beforehand.

This blogfest is about beaches, and having a beach scene, which is not something I write about very often. I don't do settings at the ocean or lake or whatever. Not sure why. I almost thought I would have to write a new scene but then I remembered an old story from 2007 that takes place on a beach. Here is the details and entry.

The Blogfest: Beach Scene Blogfest - hosted by  Rachel Bateman. Check out the link to see other entries.

My entry is not from a novel. I know, shocking. No mutant stories or anything like that. This is just a random story I wrote for a contest on writing.com called Writer's Cramp. It won that day and has been edited slightly. But it was written 3 years ago, so my writing is a bit better now. The main character in the story is going for a jog on the beach, alone. I had a hard time figuring how much of the story to show, so hope I pick the right length.

The Story: The Find After the Storm

The silver jeep door opened next to the plank boardwalk, with a soft click. Rich stretched his sneaker clad feet out while using the handle to help propel himself from the vehicle.

"Why do you insist on coming here?" Isaac interjected from the driver's seat before Rich had the chance to shut the door.

Staring out at the beach line, Rich responded. "I'm drawn to the ocean. It gives me a sense of peace." He closed the door in an effort to end the conversation but the window was down.

"You won't find him out there. You do know that, don't you?"

His reference didn't pass Rich. The recurring dream had haunted him since the age of seven. Each time, there was a boy with blue eyes staring at him through the deep ocean water. The look given by the boy haunted his waking hours.

"Probably not," he admitted. "But you never know."

Isaac's head moved from side to side in disapproval and drove away.

Looking out towards the distant beach, Rich sighed. He was alone, at last.

The boardwalk was empty that morning as it almost always was at six. A storm had torn across the beach front throughout most of the night. Debris lay across the sand, everywhere. The sun started its very slow ascent but was barely visible through the gray clouds that lingered above the land.

Rich started jogging on the boardwalk after a quick stretch. The only sound that reached his ear was the waves lapping the beach. He didn't own an ipod but he didn't want one either. It took him twenty minutes to get to the other side of the boardwalk.

As good as it felt to jog, the walk back along the beach was his favorite part. The debris cluttered each step, but hidden treasures lay underneath. In ten minutes, Rich collected three sand dollars, one tiny conch and a silver hoop. Feeling successful, he rested for a minute on a large piece of drift wood.

Rays of sun light began to peak through the clouds exposing the deep green color of the distant sea. Waves crawled towards the beach, a slow reprieve from the rough night storm.

Standing, Rich scanned the line in front of him, looking for the next treasure. A strange pattern of wave caught his attention. His eyes followed it to the source, a large object disrupted the otherwise systematic pattern.

At first he disregarded the object, but in taking another glimpse, Rich squinted to make out more details.

"Oh shit." He said, realizing the object that disrupted the waves was a human body.