Friendly Dating - Kira

Chapter 47 - Sandcastle Wars

"Ethan, we're building a draw bridge over a moat, not dungeons. What are you doing?" Uncle Ian asks, lowering his small plastic spade and frowning at Ethan, who seems to be building some rooms in the middle of the moat.

It is a rather lovely afternoon; the sun, though still hot, is losing some of its potency, and there is a refreshing breeze blowing from the sea near us. The sailors of the first three boats that finished the race received some nice prizes consisting of vouchers from various stores and services all over Summerfields. 

Ethan was especially excited about his voucher for a bikini wax at Linda's Hair Beware in Palm Grove. It is possible that he thinks it involves applying wax to models wearing bikinis or creating wax statues wearing bikinis... or something equally strange. There is no way ever fully to understand how the guy's mind works. Delia has been encouraging him to make an appointment. She'll probably step in and take the appointment for herself once Ethan has been freaked out to her satisfaction. Sometimes, she can be a little sadistic.

Almost everybody at the festival joined together in a massive picnic on towels and blankets, under colourful umbrellas on the beach, and It was fun having all of us together, relaxing, chatting, eating and joking around. Things are starting to feel like they used to be before Uncle Ian's partner caused so much damage. Every day it seems as though he is getting closer to returning to the man I love like a second father and getting further away from the stranger he has become.

We are rounding off the day's activities by taking part in the sandcastle building competition, but I'm using those terms very generously as it always starts with building sandcastles but never ends with any clear winners or actual sand castles, for that matter... except for the families with small children who do their building safely at the other end of the beach and actually do win some prizes. Daddy and I are in a team with the Fletchers, Simon and James, and things have been going well until now.

"I'm building cofferdams," Ethan explains, and Uncle Ian is not the only person in our group staring open-mouthed at the boy.

"You're building dams in the moat?" Simon asks the question we've all been thinking silently, not brave enough to ask it out loud and potentially receive answers. As I've said before, there's no way to truly understand the things that come to life in Ethan's mind.

"Yes," Ethan says patiently, but the look he is giving Simon speaks of his disdain for ignorant people and their dumb questions. "I'm building cofferdams and platforms for the concrete towers that will support the draw bridge when it's lowered."

Oh! That sounded rather knowledgeable and almost logical... if we were building an actual castle... with an actual moat.

"You're building sand dams?" Delia asks.

"It's a moat, Deli," Ethan explains. "Moats are filled with water. This is how you build bridges in water."

"That is true, Ethe, but there's no water in our moat," his father points out, and I know I should be a supportive girlfriend and stand by Ethan, but there really isn't any water near our castle. It's not high water yet, and we're pretty far up on the beach. He is literally building sand dams surrounded by sand.

"There would've been if we were really building a castle on a lake as we said we're doing."

"Only you said that, Buddy," James chuckles, sucking in his breath to suppress his laughter when Ethan glares at him.

"Dell wove the drawbridge with grass; it doesn't really need..." I wisely decide not to finish that thought when Ethan's piercing eyes turn on me. Unfortunately, I cannot stop the stream of giggles to express precisely how silly I think he is.