Beach Picnic

Luke, Resus, Cleo and I were very excited. We were going to the beach to have a barbecue! We’ve never had a barbecue on the beach before, only in the garden at home, but this is something to think about all Summer long. When we drove to the beach, we sang along to the radio, which was playing season-appropriate pop songs, and our parents smiled and laughed to see us having a good time. When we approached the beach, we could hardly contain our excitement, and charged out of the car and ran straight ahead onto the beach.

Shouts and squeals filled the air as we tumbled down the sand dunes, Luke grabbing me in a playful bear hug. Like always, when we ran onto the beach, we landed in a heap at the bottom of the hill, laughing loudly. We sat on the sand and watched as Resus’ father Alston set up the barbecue. “While we’re setting up the food, why don’t you kids go and play for a while?” he asked. “You betcha!” I said. The first thing we wanted to do was swim in the water. My mum applied suncream to all of us - the suncream felt chilly against our warm skin, but it cooled us down nonetheless.

To our relief, there was no jellyfish washed up on the beach today. We ran into the sea and splashed like mad. We swam into the shallows and splashed each other, laughing loudly and shouting. We dived under the water and swam together, holding hands, waving to each other when we let go. When I went underwater, I thought hardly and clearly about the stress of everyday life, and how it all pushed away because of the relaxing atmosphere of the seaside. School, playing with my friends and tidying our room are all a part of our bewildering everyday lives, but at the seaside, we never gave up on enjoying the water and the sunshine. We pretended to drink tea under the water, just like our neighbours the Heelers when they went swimming in Uncle Stripe’s pool. When Resus swam underwater, he found a beautiful shell, coloured pure white with a jewel on it. He couldn’t wait to show it to us, and when he did, we thought it extremely amazing.

Later, inspired by Resus’ find, we went hunting for shells which were buried on the sand. While getting dry, we thought about why beaches are full of shells, why they are washed up on the beach, and why people collect them. Luke, Resus, Cleo and I looked in all different directions, but for Resus, he had to show his mother Bella anyway because he was the one who found the shell first. Cleo was scouring the beach for a fossil of a snake, but she was more than delighted when she found a small thin pink shell, something she’s never seen before, much better than a snake’s tooth. Cleo liked sand a lot, and she loved scouring for treasures in the sand, because she used to do that a lot in Egypt. Luke crawled on all fours, looking for the best shell he could find. He partially transformed his mouth into a werewolf snout and sniffed all around. He could smell the fresh sea air, and a hint of the barbecue in the distance. He was so enticed by the smell that he didn’t notice a crab scuttling up to him. “Hello,” he said, and the crab waved its pincers. “That’s one way to find treasure.”

As for me, I was searching around the rock pools for a shell. My bare feet touched the smooth, giant rocks as I climbed over a giant one and looked out over the sea. “Such a treasure.” I smiled. At that point, Luke, Resus and Cleo ran to join me. As they sat beside me on the rock, a huge tidal wave splashed the rocks and soaked us. “What was THAT?” asked Luke. “Water!” I squealed, “That’s the law of the seaside!” We held our arms out and waited for the next tidal wave, and when it did arrive, we screamed in joy. A shower on the beach is much better than an electric shower. If we lived on the beach, having a shower on the rocks would be much better than an electric shower anyway.