When I was a little boy I loved walking on the sand at the seaside. Every time I put a foot down I could hear the sand moving some considerable distance away. Occasionally the pressure would bring a shell to the surface like a lost treasure.
Sometimes I imagined that my seemingly insignificant action might reveal a human bone or a rare and valuable Roman coin.
A couple of years ago, the terrible Goddess and I were sitting at a beach café in Cornwall supping a cup of Earl Grey.
A young man walked down the beach carrying a garden rake. He started working on the beach, methodically scraping at the sand in segments and painstakingly examining the area he’d just finished.
Whatever he was doing, looking for shellfish perhaps, he didn’t seem to be having much luck.
After a while curiosity overcame us and we wandered over to ask him what he was up to.
He explained he’d been swimming the previous day and his wedding ring had slipped off in the water. He was only recently married and was extremely upset at the loss.
He’d taken bearings of where he had been when the ring slipped from his finger and returned as soon as the tide had receded.
We joined in with the search until the tide ‘Canuted’ us.
We said our goodbyes and wished him luck – he was going to have another go at the next tide.
I doubt very much that he ever found it but one day, a little boy might be walking on the sand trying to find an adventure, or some lost treasure, and……. well you never know.
(It’s a very beautiful beach; I wish I could remember what it’s called. We don’t have a map of Cornwall here and I can’t Google a ce moment. Lo,TG Ed) ……. ermmm? ….. we are home now darling ..
One little boy has got a very good blog.
