You Never Know What You'll Find In a Sand Castle

The Sand Castle

What is the likeliness of a five-year-old boy and girl becoming friends in one day? Not likely. But a day at the beach and a shell can change it all.
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"Hey!" a little girl squealed as her beach ball was smacked into the ocean. Her little hands balled into fists and her green eyes exploded in anger. "That was my favorite beach ball, and I can't swim that far!"

The little boy who had bumped into her turned away and didn't apologize. All the boys his age hated girls, and he wasn't going to be the one that was nice to them.

"Get it back!" she yelled at him. "Get it back now! I'll tell on you if you don't!" she threatened. The boy tensed. He didn't want to go back to where his parents were waiting and have to tell them a little girl got him in trouble.

"I'm not swimming out there!" he answered at last. The little girl screamed and tears formed in her eyes. The sun seemed to make her red hair catch on fire, which didn't make her seem anymore friendly. "Fine. FINE! I'll get you back your stupid beach ball!" the boy spat. The girl immediately stopped crying, crossed her arms, and smiled smugly.

After a bit of choking, rubbing his eyes and grabbing, the boy finally got the beach ball back to the little girl.

"YAY!" she squealed and threw it up in the air. The boy slowly started to walk away when she stopped to look at him. "Hey, where are you going? Don't-don't you want to play with me? It could be fun!" The boy sighed.

"I don't play with GIRLS," he answered. The little girl looked hurt. Her green eyes watered.

"What's wrong with girls?" she asked, her voice quivering. The boy whipped around.

"Girls whine about everything. They act really girly and talk about stupid stuff. Boys are better cause we're smart. We're good at running and things like that. Girls can't do any of that stuff! They're no fun!" He looked at her and waited for an answer. The girl looked at the sandy ground and played around with it with her feet.

"Well girls are nice!" she told him. "And we don't whine about things! Boys do! They tell us we're stupid and say mean things about us. They pull our hair and push us. They tell us we're stupid when we play pretend, and they never say sorry when they take your things." She teared up at bit on the last part. The little boy was silent. What she said was true. He and his friends made fun of girls at school whenever they played in their little groups. He remembered the little girl he had seen crying after his friend took her favorite toy and wouldn't give it back. He tried to think of a way to be nicer to this little girl.

"Can girls build sand castles?" he asked. That got her attention. He had never told anyone, but he loved to make sand castles. His friends said that it was a girly thing to do.

"I LOVE sand castles!" the girl squealed. "Wanna make one?!" The boy looked around to see if any other boys were watching, and nodded his head "yes".

"We can do it here, I guess," the boy said, pointing to the ground.

They talked and scooped up sand in a pile. They didn't have a bucket, but they still had fun with what they had. The little girl's father watched from afar as his most precious possession played with the boy. He looked at the boy suspiciously, but also wondered about him. His daughter had come home many times; telling him how mean boys were at school. But now here she was, digging happily in the sand next to one. It was as if he was watching a human version of "Fox and the Hound."

"Done!" the boy shouted triumphantly, staring at the blob of sand with a little mote around it.

"Not yet! We have to decorate it!" the little girl said, grabbing a big shell out of the sand.

"But that'll make it look GIRLY..." the boy protested. The girl pouted. "Okay..." he sighed. She carefully placed the big sand dollar on top of the castle.

"Now we need a king and a queen!" the girl said. "How about you be the king, and I'll be the queen!"

"Okay! So you are queen - what's your name?" the boy asked.

"Kacy!"

"Queen Kacy! And I'm King Reed!"

Kacy and Reed played for hours in the sun. They made orders for their loyal subjects and pretended that pieces of seaweed were their crowns. They laughed and made their thrones out of mounds of sand. Reed had never had so much fun, especially with a girl. He never realized that playing pretend could be so fun. After this, he promised never to make fun of a girl again. Maybe they weren't so bad after all.

Kacy was about to banish a subject of the kingdom for "stealing the royal cat" when the tide reached its highest. The castle was swept away with one wave -as was Kacy. She landed on the castle with a "splash!" and Reed helped her up.

"The sand castle!" he cried, looking at its remains. "We worked so hard on it!"

Kacy stared sadly at the ocean and told it to give their sand castle back. When the waves simply replied by taking more of the sand, she stuck her tongue out at the sea. The two children plopped down miserably at the edge of the waters.

"Look!" Kacy yelled, nudging Reed to get his attention. Two pieces of a pretty pink shell lay at the bottom of the sand. The little red-head grabbed the pieces of the shell before the tide could pull them away. "Pretty!"

"That was in our castle the whole time?" Reed said, gaping at the beautiful shell pieces.

"My daddy says,"You never know what you'll find in a sand castle."" Kacy whispered. She handed Reed one half. "Maybe the ocean took our castle away so it could give us a present!" She turned to the waves and apologized for sticking her tongue out at them. The waves said nothing. "Now we can bring these home and remember this day forever!" Kacy said. Reed smiled at his new friend.

"Kacy! Time to go! Say goodbye to your...friend," Kacy's dad called from a ways down the beach. Kacy looked sadly at her new friend and gave him a quick hug.

"Bye King Reed! Don't forget about me!"

Reed wasn't sure how to respond. He'd never been hugged by a girl before...or even touched by one. After she let go he simply smiled and waved awkwardly.

"Goodbye Queen Kacy!" he said. His last image of the girl with flaming red hair was when she looked back at him while holding her dad's hand. She turned and waved goodbye to the ocean. The ocean waved back.

Reed walked sadly back to his mom and dad. His mom ruffled his hair and said,"Hey kiddo! Whatcha got there?" Reed opened his palm and realized he was still holding the half of the pretty shell. "Where did you find that?"

""You never know what you'll find in a sand castle,"" he answered.