On the Beach

The room, rectangular, has one side that is a mirror. To the left of the mirror the wall is painted a pale blue-violet and to the right a pale violet. Opposite the mirror side there is no wall. The mirrored wall creates the illusion that the room is twice as long and open on both ends. The view through the mirror out the open side reveals an expanse of water leading to an indistinct distant horizon. The sky transitions from a light gold near the horizon to a deep blue above with haze between.

A round dark oak game table with an inlaid tile chess board sits in the center of the gray floor of the room. The white queen and a bishop close in on the unprotected black king. The white king patiently waits with a bored expression playing across his face. On the violet wall hangs a large canvas reproduction of Dali's painting, "The Persistence of Memory." Opposite centered on the blue-violet wall attached by a hook, a clock ticks, its hands indicating six-fifty-five.

Imperceptive at first, a wave begins to form. Gaining strength and height it rushes toward the room. Churning, rolling, now beginning to roar as it approaches; then blocking out the sky with its light green fluorescence just before it strikes. Now filling the room with sea, sand, seaweed and broken bits of shell, the room tumbles. Over and over as contents scatter and chaos reflects in the mirror. Eventually the roiling subsides. The room rocks one last time to rest in the sand, open-face down. All is dark.



"I told you," said the boy with the red plastic bucket and matching shovel, "they don't belong on the beach."

Light once again spills into the room as a jumbled mess of chess kingdoms, wet sand, time and memory drip out the open end.

"It's all ruined." The boys sister wipes the back of her left hand across her eyes smearing sand and blond hair across her face. She scrapes a tiny table encased in wet sand out of the box and throws it at the feet of her brother.

Barbie and Ken, in swimwear, lie on the beach side by side, smiling.