Yeah, I’m just not doing well avoiding that snooze button. I think I need to shift my alarm clock a little farther away so it is just out of reach. That way I have to actually sit up and half get out of bed to reach it. Usually i don’t need that trick until a little later in the season, but I might have to deploy it earlier. For now, there is the prompt. So set the timers and off we go.
I need to take a minute and figure out the reason for the move. My guess is either family or work, possibly both. what it is will determine the course of the story so that will take a bit of a think through.
Tuesday, September 26th: The seagulls cried out as they took flight.
The seagulls cried out as they took flight. Terry wagged his tail and looked pleased with himself. He looked back at me as I walked slowly behind him, waves lapping at my feet and shoes in hand. The socks were stuffed in the toes and I was enjoying the contrast of the warm sand and cooler water on my feet. I knew soon enough the sand would cool, repeated dousing by the water stealing the sun’s warmth from the sands. However, the tide was only newly reaching this stretch of beach and the contrast was still sharp.
Terry trotted along happily. I had no expectations of his efforts keeping the gulls away for long. They were too accustomed to the sight of people meaning food for that. Truthfully I don’t think Terry did either and was in fact eagerly awaiting another squadron’s arrival so that he could begin the process of rousting them once more.
‘Perhaps it will be good for him,’ I thought. ‘More room to run, something other than squirrels to chase.” I was fairly certain the park near my old apartment had squirrels currently offering thanks to their squirrel deity for Terry’s absence. He was the only dog I had ever seen in the park and he chased them mercilessly. He never caught any of them and I think he would have been stunned had he actually managed to catch any. I doubted he would know what to do with them.
For Terry, the chase was the thing.
‘At least here he gets seagulls,’ spotting another massing, Terry wagged his tail and dove forward. ‘He’ll be tired tonight.’
The thought was a pleasing one. I was worried what so much time cooped up in the car would do to him. He seemed to be taking it in stride. In fact, he seemed to take everything in stride. The move, once he knew he wasn’t being left behind, seemed a grand adventure. While he didn’t like being cooped up in the cab of the moving van, he enjoyed sticking his nose in the stream of air coming through the slight gap. He waggled his entire body enthusiastically at the scents that drifted towards him and thoroughly enjoyed every pit stop they made along the way.
He enjoyed examining every inch of the new place and was now enjoying himself on the beach. Terry made the transition smoothly. I was still rocky on some of the bits. I hated leaving my old apartment. I hated leaving my city. But I was needed here and here was where I would be. That was the long and short of it. The details of what I wanted were pretty much irrelevant. This was necessary so it was being done. When the necessary was done, I would sit down and have a rethink.
For now, I was content to enjoy the small things. The sand, the waves and Terry’s enjoyment. Deciding I had gone as far up the beach as time would allow, I whistled for Terry and we turned around. He was just as happy to change directions and raced past me to the gulls who settled back down after we passed.
‘Foolish bird,’ I thought as they gave flight with a united squawk. In the distance I saw I wasn’t the only one on the beach. I saw him at a distance, recognized the shape and the gait. I tensed. ‘At least I have time to prepare,’ I thought.
Ten til Midnight 