The Sand Castle.

The Sand Castle. It was an orange sunset and it painted everything a brilliant orange.I was sitting on a huge rock at the bottom of a cliff. The waves were lapping gently at my soaking feet. I was busy studying the sunset.  The beach had been deserted for weeks, not that the weather wasn’t nice- it was beautiful. It was just that no one but the tourists came to this spot, and this was the off season, so I had the beach all to myself.Lost in my thoughts I was suddenly  startled by the approach of a swimmer, she was coming from the wrong direction of the shore I thought.I squinted my eyes against the sunset to see if I could see a waiting boat, but there was none.Then I thought, she must have swam from the other side of the cliff.Her movements were so graceful, I became entranced, then suddenly she rose up from the water, almost in front of me.Like the trained eye of a jeweler, I appraised her in just that second.Her hair was pulled back over her small but beautifully shaped ears, and was as light as I had ever seen.Her eyes were large and liquid blue, and her nose complimented her thin smiling face, and her teeth were the whitest as I had ever seen, she was breathlessly beautiful.She came closer, raising her head slightly and shaking her hair loose.She smiled and said, “Hello my name’s Nancy,” What’s yours?I must have sounded like a fool, I stuttered and stammered, and I could hardly remember my own name.Suddenly I blurted out, ”Tony, Tony’s my name!”“That’s a pretty name,” she said. “ Do you come here very often? She inquired.“I have been for the past week or so” I managed to mumble.Her smile grew wider, and then she said, “Aren’t you going to ask me to sit down?”I stammered out an apology and said, “Oh! Yes please, please sit down by all means.”The setting sun made her blond hair seem orange, and he face seem to radiate warmth I’d never felt before,I never realized how lonesome I was before, until now.She turned her head and smiled at me, then she said  “Tony” like I’d never heard it said before. I guess you could say it was almost like a prayer.I turned and our eyes met, She asked “Do you like me?” I smiled, she reminded me so much of a little girl.“Yes! Yes!, I do Nancy. I like you, very much”She smiled and said “I’m glad, because I like you too.”Her hand went behind my neck pulling me to her wait lips, I took her in my arms and soon a feeling came over me that I had never experienced before, it was as though I had an unquenchable hunger for her kisses,And the feeling that no matter how close I pulled her to me, it would never be close enough, to satisfy the desire I had for her. the kiss ended leaving me breathless.She smiled and said, “You have a lot of love Tony”“I,.. I never realized it before until now.” I said sheepishlyShe took my hand and said, “Let’s run along the beach, I love to run along the beach, I love to feel the water and the sand beneath my feet.”We ran, and we ran until we both collapsed on the cool damp sand.The stars and the moon had replaced the once beautiful sunset.As she lay on the sand, I looked into her beautiful eyes and marveled at her beauty.Her eyes and her soft moist lips glistened in the moonlight, as if they were touched by stardust.“Let’s build a Sand Castle’ she said excitedly.After it was done she dedicated it to us.“To King and Queen of all we survey,” she said.I was never so happy in my whole life, as I was at this momentI lay back on the sand and studied the stars, and she cradled her head in my outstretched arms.I drew her near and kissed her long and hard.The coolness of her firm body on mine, sent chills threw me, I was so content with the nearness of her, and I fell asleep.The screeching of the sea gulls caused me to stir, and I turned and reached for her, but she was gone.I jumped to my feet and began to search the beach like a madman.She was nowhere to be found.The Sand Castle we built last night was gone. I returned to where we were lying, then I saw the footprints in the sand leading to the sea.I spent the whole day pacing the sandy shore looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found.Then I saw a figure approaching from distance. I couldn’t make out who it was because they were too far away; I held my breath hoping it was she. Disappointment must have registered on my face, because the stranger asked, “Were you expecting someone else?”A girl! I blurted out“A very special girl,” he asked.“Why do you say that?” I asked.“Does she have long blond hair, and the biggest bluest eyes you have ever seen”Yes! Yes! I said I grabbed him almost in a jealous  rage, I asked. “Where is she?”“ Control yourself “ he said.Taking my hands from his shirt front, “Do you know her I asked hopefully”  “Where does she live?”“Yes, I knew her,” he said smiling reminiscently.“And many more than you and I have too.”Puzzled I asked, “What do you mean?”“Well he began I guess you could compare Nancy with her sister Lorelei, and their home is the sea.”The color must have drained out of my face, because I felt numb and cold.”Don’t feel bad, that’s the usual reaction you’re not the first and by no means the last.” He said.“I don’t understand,” I said.“ Let me tell you a story as it was told to me, and then maybe you’ll understand, the unbelievable.”He cleared his throat and began, “Well Nancy and Lorelei were sisters, and both were engaged to sailors.And before each voyage the sailors would tell the girls to wait by the shore and when the nor-easter blew and the waves were high, and the clouds were angry, they were to look for them, for they would be riding the waves home”He went on, “Well one day their ship got caught in a storm and went down, All hands were accounted for except two, and everyday Nancy and Lorelei , would wait on the beach, then it’s said that one day the girls seen their men calling to them from far-off wave, blown in by a noreaster, and the girls swam out to sea to meet them, and were never seen again.” Smiling he said “That is except occasionally, on a deserted beach, and then only by someone who is lonely”The stranger smiled and said, “Welcome to the club”Then he replaced his pipe firmly in his mouth and walked away.I walk slowly down the beach night after lonely night, and days I sleep on the sand. Waiting and hoping.The loneliness I experience could never measured in depth or the overabundance of love I feel each time I think of her.People are use to seeing my lonely bearded form walking slowly walking up and down the shore searching for her.Why just the other day I found a Sand Castle, just like the one we build. “YOU SEE, I TOLD YOU SHE’D BE BACK!”                                                                                                                        Don Eagle. Written October 8th, 2001 © on Oct 08 2001 06:52 AM PST   0 • 10 • 8