The Waves Are Ours |Virgato|

Chapter 4: A Whole New World

Chris pushed at the floating objects in his bowl. Richard had said to eat them and that they were breakfast, but he wasn't so sure. They smelled strange and dry besides the white water like substance that they floated in. He was pretty sure Richard had called it milk. He looked at Richard helplessly.

"You eat them, Christopher. With the spoon," Richard explained before demonstrating with his own. He made it look easy, as if it was nothing. He supposed if he asked Richard to eat oysters or seaweed, he would probably have the same reaction.

Chris stared at the bowl and the spoon. He scooped the tiniest amount onto it and plugged his nose. He put it straight into his mouth and swallowed.

A moment later, his eyes lit up, it was good. "Mm- this- good- Richard," he spoke through mouthfuls.

Richard laughed, "Geez if you think that's good, just wait until you try something like pasta or ice cream, or something even better, like pizza. The guys and I were talking about getting some later."

"Pizza?" Chris questioned, wondering what something with such a strange name could taste like.

"It's a surprise," Richard smiled knowingly. "You'll find out what it is soon enough."

Chris nodded. If pizza was even better than this, he couldn't wait to try it. Same with this pasta or ice cream. He frowned. Maybe he was enjoying this being on land thing a little too much. They had such amazing food up here. Seaweed and oysters suddenly seemed quite boring. One point to the land people, he thought.

Erick had already left, but Richard had promised he'd be back soon. From what Richard had told him, the two went out surfing together almost every morning. They'd been in different grades at school, but had become friends a few years ago. Both were finished with school. Richard was about the same age as Chris.

It was currently a thing the land people called summer vacation, where many of the humans had time off. Richard had also explained that this weekend there was going to be a massive festival on the beach that both he and Erick had some part in helping organize. Chris was excited. He'd seen many of the humans' festivals from the ocean before, where white tents would line the sand and there would be music, as well as those bright sparkly things that humans let off into the sky that made loud bangs. Chris had feared them originally, but when he'd seen the beautiful colors they produced, he wasn't scared at all. Perhaps if he was still here by then, he'd finally get to see them from land as the humans did.

Suddenly, the whole table began to shake and Chris jumped backwards, almost falling off the chair. A light tone began to fill the air. Richard looked concerned, grabbing the flat black object off the bench as it flashed with a bright light. The noise and the shaking stopped as he talked into it. "Hello?"

Chris watched as Richard talked. It seemed he was talking to another human on it. How strange. He looked for wires or some sort of magical power source. Humans didn't have magic, but the device was operating somehow. They were discussing something about one of the performers cancelling, but Chris was more fascinated by the object itself.

"So, you can talk to other people with that?" Chris asked when Richard had put the object back on the table. He was fascinated by Richard's communication device.

Richard nodded, "It's called a cell phone. Everyone who has a phone has a number, and if they answer you can talk to them."

"Whoa, that's so cool," Chris gasped.

"Do they teach you anything in the ocean?" Richard laughs. "I would have thought cell phones would be something even you'd know about."

Chris looked down into the bowl, "Well, we're not supposed to ever be on land, so no one knows."