The Beach Day

The Beach Day

All I wanted was quiet time on the beach alone, working my tan, reading. There was no quiet place. There were “beachgoers” everywhere wanting loud, active fun. Even the ones on blankets, popped up to join in at a second’s notice.

So I walked further from the shore. Not as smooth of sand, many rocks and some scruffy bushes, but still the fresh air, the ocean view, and now quiet.

I was comfortably reading when I heard an odd sound. A squeak. I sat up checking if it was from the volleyball net, but that was too far. “Squeak...,” it was closer.

I jumped up now worrying about a mouse! I know, at the beach? But it sounded like one! Yet all I saw was a roundish beach-rock colored circle near a bush.

It was about eight inched wide, had I not heard it, I wouldn’t have even noticed, it blended perfectly. Curiosity took hold, I had to know what it was. I tiptoed over and pushed at it with my book.

The second my book touched it, it was like I’d been hit by lightning! I felt a surge through my body and I couldn’t pull my hand off my book, nor the book off the thing. I apparently fainted.

When I came to, I was lying on my towel, the book beside me and the circle gone. Everyone tells me it was a dream, I just fell asleep, dreaming. It just felt so real.

Alberton notified the captain that the earthling was telling that story again. They’d been monitoring her twenty-four seven for months.

“No worries, Captain Lonns answered, “so far nobody has believed her, and we are scheduled to head for Zakplank in the next atpot. We’ll be gone well before this earth day has even ended.”