Oceanfront Fantasy

I remember being dazed by the lights from the nearby carnival. Flamboyant blues, vibrant pinks, and neon yellows pierced through the crepuscular Saturday night. The smell of salt wafted in the air, allowing my lungs to absorb and appreciate every new breath. The vivacious voices of 60s rock and 90s pop, hummed throughout the tiny shops. Teenagers surged in and out of the nearby arcades. Several small children stuffed their pudgy faces in a wisp of colored synthetic, saccharine, gripping the fairy floss on striped plastic sticks.

The waves that were behind the madness of the lively atmosphere, were lacquered with a black inky hue. The pallid, pale glow from the moon shone a single spotlight above the deeper section of the ocean. I remember wanting to be fully engulfed in the sea and sense every molecule of the numbing liquid. In that moment, I wanted to become the ocean, to be able to throw my weight at the sand and revert back into the unknown. I've always hated the beach, but the night life of the Salisbury oceanfront was something a five year old like me at the time, was completely enamored by.

I vividly remember stoping at the petite shop. Above it, was a giant billboard of a strange and unknown food item to me, personified with a weathered face and complete with a gilded crown that lay crooked on it's head.

The smell of fried butter made my knees weak and head spin in a diabetic coma. The white powder that was layered upon a golden bed of hand-tossed dough, was non-submersible, hovering throughout the shop and creating clouds of sugar that sailed into the eventide.

'It's called fried dough,' my father distinguished to me.

'Fried dough?,' I thought. 'What could this be?' I silently wondered.

My father carefully ordered a plate for me and set it before my eyes. It's crispy, buttery, and flakey crust was strong enough to hold a heap of what looked like white fairy dust, a soft, sugary sierra of flavor waiting for me to savor.

I can't remember what happened after I took the first bite. My mind was wiped clean like a blank canvas, and everything that my five year mind new about reality, was slowing disintegrating into this moment--this moment of pure and uninterrupted bliss. The overdrive of flavor put my mind into a state of fantasia.

My stomach was now satisfied and my dad had thrown me on top of his shoulders. I looked back, only to gaze at the onyx, silken sea, waving a goodbye as I left the moment of bliss to crash beyond the ivory sand, and transform into nothing but a memoir of a new experience.