Trip to the Beach

Summer of 2002

The afternoon was hot, I was glued to my chair. My arms wide apart on the armrests and my legs stretched out long onto the leg-rests. Outside, the crickets were screaming, and the leaves would occasionally sway as hot wind passed over them. My eyes followed them through the window, they were the only things moving. The roads were empty, the neighbouring houses looked forgotten, and the screaming crickets were nowhere to be seen. The view through my window was a desolate one, but it seems both my cat and I found it interesting. I didn’t know what he was looking at, but neither did I. On this sweaty afternoon, I felt like I didn’t know anything. The searching eyes of the cat turned towards me, they were small compared to his face and a little droopy. People liked to comment that he looked sad and old. He stretched from his seat at the window and moved towards me. With no real urgency, he jumped on my leg and stared at my face. The cat was never an affectionate one, he rarely asked for love, but sometimes he would come to you and stare at you. After some years of living together with him, I knew what he wanted. So I grabbed my keys, opened the front door, and walk out barefoot onto the sizzling pavement. The cat soon followed and we started our march through the quiet town.

We walked side by side in the middle of the road, crickets accompanied us. We looked at the passing houses. The sun brought out their cheerful paint, and trimmed yards. Sometimes there were flowers, other times there were toys but the lawns were always green. I looked closely at the toys: deflated balloons, tipped tricycles, and empty water guns. They all lay nonchalant on the lawn, as if to decorate.
The cat still walked by my side, but he didn’t seem interested in the lawns or the crickets or the deafening heat. He was following the road. 
We reached the end, and we had the important decision of left or right to make, but the cat chose straight forward, towards the kiosk between the turns. A small, rundown place whose main customers were hungry kids looking to score their daily sugar fix. Today, however, there were no kids, and when we reached the counter, no vendor either. The cat made his way under the shade of the counter to clean his paws. I went toward the freezer next to it for an ice cream, while the sun burned into my back. I chose chocolate and placed the money onto the counter, the vendor surely wouldn’t mind. The kids did it all the time, although without money. I unwrapped the ice cream and along with the cat, we made our way left.

The scenery was different now, the screams of crickets grew lesser and so did the trees. Houses became buildings and lawns became side walks. Colorful shops lined the bigger road, while I licked the remainder of my ice cream from my arm. We looked at the shops and restaurants, each painted in its own style. Selling different kinds of wanted things: small fur hats in summer, Chinese Hot Pot with a Scandinavian twist, all you need for satanic rituals, fun toys made of air to bring out the true potential of your child’s imagination. The shops were plentiful of everything anyone could need, and yet it seems that today, nobody wanted anything, and the colorful shops waited in dullness. 

The sun was lower in the sky now, but the hot wind kept coming. We made our way in the middle of the empty road, along the barren shops and continued our way forward toward the beach. The road started to soften, while the air gained the spicy freshness of the sea. There were no more crickets to be heard, only the distant sound of movement. The cat slowed down as we went closer and closer to the ocean. The smell was overwhelming now, and the ground completely soft. I stood with the ice cream stick still in hand, while my toes sunk into the sand and watched the sea eat the sun. The cat was looking at the sea too but not at the sun. He stared at the darkening ocean and made no advance. I turned towards him as he looked up to be with his droopy eyes while comfortably stretching out onto the sand. As the final rays of the sun vanished, I made my way home alone.