Shoes on a Beach

My shoes were soaked again. Another beautiful beach walk where I could not help but run through the water with my shoes on. Too cold to take them off but nice enough to try; I had ruined so many shoes that way. Who could resist a beach? Not me, whenever I could, I made my way to the golden sand minutes away from my cottage.

At the top of the hill was my cottage. Through the twists of the road running through the hillside, this cottage was hard to notice. Small and picturesque, my home was the perfect place to watch the sea and fall asleep to its sounds in the evening.

So, this evening, like clockwork, I headed down to the beach for my evening walk. With my loud terrier at my feet, we both hurried our way down the twisted turns to the roads end.

“Alfie, where are you going?” I shouted as the little brown fur-ball ran right out of sight. Luckily I could hear him with the sound of the crashing waves. My pace increased and I was now engulfed with large shrubs as I weaved around the dunes. My feet got heavier and heavier as I got closer to the beach. The sand could entrap you if you were not careful.

Then a sparkle cause my eye. I looked for it again but could not set my sights on it. “Alfie!”, I yelled hoping that I had not lost my dog. Whoof, Whoof .. came the sound and the little shadow came running to my feet. As I smiled at his arrival, I noticed that he had something in his mouth. “What do you have there little man?”, I asked as I grabbed the item. A shoe? A brown and white shoe.

“Alfie, show me where you found this?” I do not assume my terrier understands me but I knew he would try. With a whisp of his tail, he ran back towards the beach and left me there with that shoe. For some reason, I looked closer. This shoe was unique, it had a velvet blue lining. Not something you normally see on a beach. Proceeding towards the direction of the barking, I found the Alfie digging a hole with sand flying in the air. As moved out of the way of the destruction, I noticed another shoe. This one did not match the one I was holding. Close to it was another shoe and then another and then another. I looked up and saw a beach littered with dozens of shoes. “What is going on?” Whoof, Whoof, Whoof .. made me jump back a foot or two. He ran right past me and headed toward the vessel. Alfie never had any patience. As usual I following him closer and found there was nothing in the boat except the oars. To top it off there were no footprints anywhere except for mine. An empty boat and lots of shoes. I straightened up and looked around.

Again, a flash captured my attention. I squinted and there in the horizon was a ship. We see ships on the water all the time but this one was unique. Not a cruise ship or a tanker, something almost pretty. A faraway sailing ship. Although it was a distance away, you could see that it matched the little boat, all red and purple.

Then another flash, this one was brighter than the others. The wind was starting to pick up, bringing the type of cold that seeps into your bones. But what was that flash? At that moment, I looked back up to the ship. It was lit, not a fire but lights all over. Was this a cry for help or a really big party? Are these the shoes of the attendees? Alfie did not care, he had chosen the shoe he wanted to chew on.

It was time to head back to the cottage and try to grab the shoe from the fur-ball.