Morning all. I hope you are well rested. I had a strange dream where I was tasked with photographing sunrises and had to race to various locals to film the sunrise. I remember asking if I could film the sunset instead because I didn’t like getting up early and was scoffed at by my assignment editor who looked an awful lot like Cruella DeVil, the cartoon version, complete with the long cigarette case. She told me sunsets had to be earned and that I had to work my way up from the sunrise department. I am going to be thinking about this dream all day, so I thought I’d share it. Now on with the prompt. Timers at the ready! Off we go.
I like this. No clue where it is going but I like starting this off with the first ocean visit. So many places to go from there. Horror, romance, true crime. All are possible. Actually with the ocena even Cthulhu is possible.
Thursday, September 14th: It was the first time she saw the ocean.
It was the first time she saw the ocean and she could hardly wait. Even though their flight got in late and the rest of the group was still sleeping off the travel, she couldn’t help herself. She left a note telling them where she was on the off chance they woke before she got back.
She didn’t intend to be long or to go far. Ali just couldn’t resist seeing the ocean for the first time. A part of her was glad to do so by herself. The others had been to various beaches many times and thought her excitement adorable. They said so in mocking tones and she didn’t want her first view spoiled. While she traveled a lot all of her family trips involved mountains or vineyards. Those were the destinations her parent’s favored and the ones she as an adult tended to visit when she had time off. On a few occasions there were desert locals.
She always envisioned the ocean a bit like the desert only instead of endless waves of sand it would be water. Ali left the hotel room and slipped down the night quiet hallway. Like her companions the rest of the hotel seemed still asleep.
‘And why shouldn’t they be,’ she told herself. It was still a short way from dawn. The quiet building lent her an air of mischief, as though she was sneaking out past curfew. She felt almost giddy with the excitement.
The elevator took her down to the lobby and the sleepy desk clerk nodded to her as she took her towel out of the front doors and down to the beach. It was a short walk and she kept the hotel behind her so that should anyone wake and come looking for her, she would be easy to find.
Once on the sand she set her towel out and settled herself facing the water. The air was different. She hadn’t expected that, even though she always heard of people talking about sea air. She some how thought it was something found on a cruise ship when in the middle of the ocean. Here, sitting on the beach with the moon gone and the sun barely a glow on the horizon, she drew in deep breaths and felt the tangy briny sea that was still shadowed by night, feeling it even if she couldn’t see it.
Then the sun started to rise. The sunrise itself was spectacular. Reds and golds splayed across the sky and reflected on the water. Then there was the water, the sea itself. There was something in common with the deserts she had seen before in the vastness and some of the rippling, but in other ways it was different all together. With the desert she got a sense of wide-open space and a vast expanse of world, almost too large to contemplate.
The sea was still vast, but it felt like a living breathing thing on it’s own. It felt alive in a way that the sands never seemed to be. She knew the desert held life even if she couldn’t see it, but her the se felt alive. It wasn’t just the creatures in it’s depths. In an instant she could see why ancients named it and gave it a personality. It seemed like so much more than water.
Ali sat on the beach, the sea in constant movement as the sun inched it’s way into the sky.
Ten til Midnight 