Once upon a time, a young(ish) man was working in a strange, small, ancient, foreign country sticking out from a grand and ancient empire. His job was nice and simple and he got many benefits from working there. The latest benefit was a holiday which stretched over the long summer month of August.
At the start of his holiday, he was excited about the prospect of jumping in his car, called “Black Betty”, and exploring all of this small country he found himself living in.
He visited many temples with unusual buildings and statues.
The people here were even more strange, as they walked around in their long robes and sang unusual, haunting songs.
He went around the countryside looking at mountains and lakes. Coaxing Black Betty along rugged tracks and up steep hills.
Black Betty rejoiced in being off those boring flat highways and went ever more into the challenging terrain. Never complaining or giving up on the difficult tasks put in front of her.
But Black Betty was a very thirsty car and had to stop often for a drink. After many drinks, the young man decided it cost to much money to drive all around the country, so he stopped at a beach for a rest.
He camped at this beach for a week.
With sand stretching away to the East,
and sand stretching away to the West,
he decided it was a very beautiful beach.
During his time at this beautiful beach, he saw many weird and wonderful things.
The first night, as the large moon was rising over the sea,
he saw many fish leaping out of the water and playing with the sparkling ripples on the surface. A beautiful sight.
During the day, he saw the funny people from this funny country play and frolic by the edge of the sea. The young man was amazed at how scared these people were of going out into the water.
In his home country, everyone loves playing in the big, pounding waves and has a lot of fun swimming out into the deep blue ocean. But here, the people are not allowed to go out very far, and when they do, they get very scared. Especially when the water is deeper than their heads. The young many realised, that although these people had lived all their lives on a peninsular surrounded by water, they were not very good swimmers.
Later he watched the local people drive down to the beach on funny looking vehicles.
These people got out and started collecting sea shells.
For hours, the young man watched these people wade out into the water and drag nets along the bottom of the sea to collect these shells.
Whole families helped. There were old grandmothers,
young ladies,
and even the little children helped.
And by the end of the day, there were thousands, millions maybe even billions of shells in big, brown tubs that the people then dragged home. What a feast they must have had, the young man imagined. Nothing like his simple dinners at night.
Each evening the young man watched the sun sink in the Western sky,
throwing up a dazzling display of colours,
as if to wave a happy farewell to the earth,
and promise that it will be back with a similar display in the morning.
However, on the last evening the young man stayed, there was no sunset. Just a mist that rolled in from the sea and enshrouded the land, giving it a mysterious atmosphere.
One could imagine sailing ships looming out of that mist at any time, come to try to conquer this land that has been taken so many times in the past, and yet somehow, holds on to its ways.
After such a long time at the beach, the young man decided to visit some friends in a city. Here he met with friends of old and enjoyed many beverages of an alcoholic nature. It was great to catch up with his friends, but like Black Betty's drinks, the young man's days of drinking were expensive and after a couple of late nights, he decided it was time for him and Black Betty to return home to the comfort of his own nice little apartment. Here he stayed until he had to go back to that nice, simple job with lots of benifits.
The End.
