1AN: This is just a very short piece of descriptive writing. I was reflecting on that 'beach holiday' feeling, and I wanted to see if I could get it down in words. Please review and tell me what you think!
On Holidays
She sat quietly in her chair at the small café table, sipping a chocolate milkshake and watching the world pass her by. It was night time, and the stars were in the sky. But this was a beach town, and the fresh evening air was full of that holiday feeling. The sidewalk was crowded with streams of happy, smiling people. They flowed past the girl like a brightly coloured river of chatter and bubbling laughter. Warm lights shone out from the restaurants and little tourist shops that were doing a roaring business. The was a sense of contentment in the air that was echoed by the lively, sweet music that came to her ears.
She watched a couple of surfers walk by, boards under their arms, heading for home. A family with a pair of excited children holding enormous ice creams passed them in the opposite direction. Faces blurred before her as she lost herself in the atmosphere of the beachfront at night.
Cars drove slowly up and down the beach-front road, windows down, the lights reflecting off their sleek, shiny surfaces, adding their own music to the scene. They ranged from the flashy sport cars of the rich, to the family cars filled with noisy children, to the rusty utes with surf boards strapped to the top and tanned, blonde young men hanging from the windows with their music blaring into the night.
Finishing her huge milkshake and leaving the small table of the street-side café the girl wandered across the road to the start of the dunes. There was more shadow over here, and the stars and the moon shone brighter when she was away from the lights. She stood on the wooden beam that was placed around the greenery on the dunes, leaning backwards. The wind blew into her face from the ocean, smelling of salt and the vast sea. Her light, floaty sarong was whipped around her legs as she closed her eyes and listened to the waves.
They spoke to her of the deep, in that mysterious voice of water against sand. In the darkness the ocean was a restless blur of navy blue, broken by white foam that seemed to glow against the pale sand and the darker water. Abandoning her post of observation above the dunes, she wandered down the small sandy path to the quiet beach. She had it all to herself; the crowd of the day had retreated to the well-lit boulevard, to the open air restaurants and the souvenir shops. She breathed deeply, relishing that feeling of being alone with nature.
The moon watched as she stepped forward into the cool water as it lapped around her ankles, welcoming her. A new song floated down on the night air to caress her ears.
"Desperate for changes, starving for truth.
I'm closer to where I started, chasing after you.
I'm falling even more in love with you,
Letting go of all I held on to.
I'm standing here until you make me move,
Hanging by a moment here with you."
She stood quietly in the embrace of the ocean, and the world turned beneath her as the stars shone silently from above.