The beach

On those really beautiful afternoons, when the sky is crystal blue, and the clouds are fluffy white cotton, and the sun is shining bright, but not scorching hot. Sometimes, on those afternoons, I would take off my clothes and go running down the beach. I would run so fast, all I would hear is the rushing of the wind in my ears. I would run so fast like I couldn't stop, my legs would pump furiously, one after another. I wouldn't care that the sand got into my face, or the saltwater spray into my eyes, or that I stepped onto a sharp little shell. I would run till I couldn't run anymore, and when I stopped, it was because I couldn't feel my legs anymore. That stopping moment was the worst. Sometimes I would puke, sometimes I would just lie down on the sand as the world spun around me. I would just lie there, sometimes with my eyes open, closed if I were too tired, till the wetness of the sea lapped around me and tried to drag me into the water.

Those days, it was just me and the beach. There wasn't such a thing as a tourist. We didn't even know that people would actually drive all the way here, just to play in the water. Now, everything has changed. On those really beautiful afternoons, the beach would be packed so full, you couldn't even run on the beach without knocking into someone. Heck, you couldn't even run around in your birthday suit anymore. Nowadays if you wanted to run, you did it at dawn, but even then, the beach is never completely empty nowadays. So if you feel like running your heart out on a most beautiful afternoon, on a most beautiful beach, you'd better have a lot of money, cause you better be owning your own beach.