A Short Collection of Short Stories

Air Bubbles in the Sand

A figure walked along the beach. It had no name, or if it did it had since forgotten it. It was dressed all in black, so not even its face was visible. It was a cold, foggy winter morning. The figure liked these mornings. There were never many people on the beach on these mornings. The figure walked steadily down the beach, stopping only once to watch some seafoam roll away from its mountain that lined the edge of the surf. The figure did not feel emotion. Or maybe it did. Perhaps it was just sad, or indifferent. It kept walking. The fog was so dense that the figure could not see more than twenty feet in either direction. Then, out of the fog, it saw a girl. She stood barefoot and the edge of the surf, gazing off into the foggy distance. She did not acknowledge the figure's existence. In fact, the figure couldn't tell if she even knew it was there. She stood staring out at the ocean, and the figure stood watching her. Then she turned and began walking down the beach. And the figure followed.

They walked for a while, until the girl stopped. She was looking down at the ground, but the figure couldn't see what she was looking at. Then she moved her foot, but the figure couldn't see what she was doing. Then the smallest smile fluttered fleetingly across her lips. And she continued walking. The figure walked to the spot where she had stood and saw that she had popped an air bubble that had formed in the sand. The figure looked up to see her, but she had vanished into the dense fog. The figure stood confused as to why such a thing would make her smile. Then, it looked back at the sand and saw another such bubble. Overcome with curiosity, the figure walked over and nudged it with its foot. It deflated. The figure felt a small warmth deep in its chest. Like a candle's flame briefly flickering into, and out of existence. It was a joy. Simple, childish, fleeting, but joy, nonetheless. The figure kept walking and found another air bubble. It pushed it with its foot, and the whole section of sand sank down. The joy returned, fading slower. The figure began to smile. It began to walk faster finding more air bubbles, its smile growing with each one. It was simple and it was childish, but the figure loved it. It kept going and going, until finally disappearing into the fog, a great smile upon its face.