Sea Storm

As I lay on the white sand, I listened to the call of the seagulls as they flew overhead.  My breathing slowed and I closed my eyes shut in the warm, deep  sunlight. I was completely relaxed.  Even though my eyes were closed light filtered through my lids.  A cloud passed over my vision and the light went out. I looked up to the sky, and noticed for the first time how dark it had become.  It was a tumult of mass confusion, and as I studied it I heard the first shouts of thunder and saw the brilliant flash of lightning that announced the coming of the great sea storm.  The waves began to crash more violently upon the shore. The wind whipped the tangy salty smell of the waves into my nostrils.  I stood up and began to walk along the beach.  I soon began to shiver, as the weather became more and more violent.  All the other beachcombers had left long before me, and I gazed along the empty horizon.  The sound of my feet crunching in the sand could not be heard above the breaking of the waves, with their white caps shimmering, leaving trails behind them on the beach.  Every waves brought that vast ocean just a little closer to me.  Then, the rain began to fall.  Seagulls flew overhead, crying out in their desperation for shelter against the wind. I wrapped my towel more tightly around me, and grasped my bag more firmly with my hands.  I fixed my eyes upon the path that would lead me home. Without warning, I stopped.  Any innocent bystander would surely have been shocked, so great was the look of surprise emblazoned on my face.  I turned and headed in the opposite direction of home, to the cliffs and the rocky shoals visible against the backdrop of a black sky.  I kept walking.  Gradually the dry sand became wet from the rain and the waves started creeping steadily forward.  The ocean was putting on a brilliant display of vibrant colors: greens, blues, purples, blacks.  I wanted to become a part of that, a molecule of water, a dancer to that wild and dangerous song.  I felt my heart pump in anticipation.  I began to run, taking long strides towards my rocky destination.  The wind howled and the rain roared. I let out a scream of happy ectasy, of pure delight to live in a world such as this. I reached the rocks, and I settled myself amongst them. I layed down on the wet sand, drinking in all of the energy surrounding me. I let the water rain down upon my face, as the waves bathed my feet. My hat had long since been blown away into the cacophony of noise and the music of the ocean.  I lay there for what seemed an eternity, letting this incredible force swallow me whole.  Then, just as suddenly as it had began, the storm stoped. The clouds drifted away, becoming hazy puffs of smoke up the distant coastline. I took one last breath of that wild, salty air. I let it out slowly, savoring the moment.  When I picked up my bag and threw my towel over my shoulders I smiled at the imprint my body had made in the brown, grainy sand.  Then I walked away to the serenade of the the cries of the gulls and the gentle beat of the waves against the rocks.