Granola Seaside

“Hurry so we don’t miss the bus!” Someone yelled to their companion who was attempting a light jog to catch up to everyone boarding.

Have you ever been to the Granola Seaside?

A tropical island of raw essence. Life so untouched, the sins of man were foreign ideals in this natural ecosystem. The ocean water around it was said to taste like freshly squeezed sunrise and the sand felt as if you walked on clouds. The trees whisper secrets to passerby that turn their nights restless for days. And the animals lift up their voices to praise the moon every night.

Only a small group of us in the entirety of humanity were allowed to gather here by invitation. And only a handful of us were graciously honored to lay eyes upon what will later be known as, ‘The Greatest Towers.’ Legends saying wishes may come true there.

Can you see it? Just over the waters awaits a treasure trove of fortitude. A sanctuary of truancy. A life with one purpose... Granola Seaside.

I wonder where it had gotten its name.

I ignored the boy’s nerve-racked hollers to keep my attention on an island almost out of eyesight. It was just far enough to be silhouetted in darkness but just close enough for me to be able to make out the shapes of clouds protruding from the skyline. Then I squinted my eyes. Bubbles? They popped and reappeared almost rhythmically above the island. And the shaking of what may be the island itself, swaying along with the sea’s breeze as if a song was in melody.

Almost like dancing.

“Fascinating,” I thought out loud, watching the boy catch up to the tour bus just in time for its departure.

“Took you long enough,” I heard his friend grumble. Though I paid it obviously no mind all the same.

Because the vehicle we rode was fascinating too.

A large, thirty seat, blue bus with rounded edges. It hung on a cord that extended from the island we left, to the island of my interest. Though it was strange, not all of the seats were filled. But there were thirty of us.

“Amazing,” the woman next to me saw the word escape my lips.

I was peaking my head an inch out of the window to feel the breeze brush against my skin. The sun giving my caramel complexion a slight glint in the morning rise.

“Isn’t it?” The woman smiled at me as I reeled my head back in and I traded her a smile back.

Then before we knew it, we were closing the distance faster than anyone could anticipate. And I think I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Well, actually... how we got here so fast, I wish I could tell you.

The bus stopped at the end of the line after about forty minutes and to my confusion there’s just a towering, light-blue pole stuck into the shore with a long, metallic string that the bus glided over the water on.

Strange. And nothing too near of what I was told stories of.

As we got off the bus, the soil was soft and holds a consistency similar to marshmallows. A blast of fresh, citrusy fruit lingers in the air. Watching the others with mouthfuls already, the clouds were extremely low to the ground and look to be made of cotton candy.

But the bubbles...

There were no bubbles.

Everyone stood at the edge of the marshmallowish grounds too amazed by the feel and the taste of cotton candy in this nature to continue onward into the forest before them. Everyone that I could see in the few seconds I used to scan my surroundings that is. There may have been more people missing than I remember from the bus ride.

Are our numbers dwindling? I thought to myself.

But it didn’t take long for me to disregard the concerns of those whom I do not call a friend.

So I shook the thought from mind and stepped forward with stride into the unknown.

“Welcome to Granola Seaside!” I hear the tour guide finally announce to the remainder of the cast. At my count, nineteen

Then, there was a timid boy who also had been caught up in the sight, was just snapped out of his trance soon enough to notice me leaving him behind.

“Wait up!” He exclaimed frantically as he stumbled over his feet to close the distance

“What do you want?” The skepticism noticeably fueling my tone.

He gets fidgety and clammy before any words come out of his mouth.

Seriously dude… what do you want?

I waited patiently as I shifted the weight of my body from one side to the other.

Clearing his throat, he fixes his book bag better onto his shoulders.

“You’re leaving the tour guide, right? Can I come with you?”

Even upon hearing this, the tour guide did not seem to raise a fuss or alarm about mine or our ploys.

Looking over him, his friend seems to be missing too now.

A mystery island? No, this was something I’ve been aware of even before then.

Then I raised my head to the forest before me, looking away from the boy. The trees were so large that from the island shore, I seen no sign of the forest ending from the left or right of me. Almost endlessly, every tree standing was just as tall as the tree at its side. Large enough for their branches to scratch the rooftops of buildings. With a deep green coating that swallows the sun’s rays as hungrily as it does the clouds around us. Have I mentioned the clouds? They flutter about in irregular directions never going above the ocean’s surface and inevitably crashing into the trees. Dramatic poofs as they evaporate to smoke and, like a vacuum, are sucked in between the tree trunks. Though what gave me goosebumps was the sole fact that I couldn’t even see a foot inside this awe-striking overgrowth.

Strange. And before I noticed.

”Seleeeeeeene.” I heard a whisper between the overgrowth.

With time and time again, I’d risk the sanctum of my peace for the sake of experience. Freedom. For life to breathe new souls into my memory. So that I can carry on my path with an ever changing meaning to the pleasures of dreams and what it is to make them a reality.

But maybe this boy may bare the burdens of My Keeper. That the faith of my course never waivers. A beacon and foundation of my resolution. My courage. My mission.

“Follow me, then.”

A broken record of patterns to my history, the excitement was too much for suspension. Instinct drove me to what seemed like, ‘The Greatest Towers’ I have ever seen. And there was no turning back.

None of this made sense to me in the moment. Perhaps this timid boy was a natural magnet to the irrational and improbable. Perhaps something else was going on. Though in knew in due time, the hour would come when this dream of mine would follow me to awakening.

And I’m here for it.