By: mohens.near
Micha
The fairly lit sky and soft breeze blowing at the beach in August were one of the perks of living in her new neighbourhood. Smooth grains of sand, the carefully spread cabanas, and small boats afloat at the fringe of the west end comprised a canvas. Happy people blended beautifully into nature’s art. MarmaJ loved being at the beach; she loved the sights at the beach.
She was at the beach to enjoy what she’d often called “nature’s little blessings”. Kids played around and she engaged some of them in fun conversations, sharing hearty laughs as they regaled her with stories about imagined adventures. MarmaJ had not the faintest idea that she’d soon be in one of these adventures until the wind began to blow hard and the rain came pouring down heavily.
The rain poured down in torrents as people scampered seeking shelter from the unexpected August downfall. But as MarmaJ made for a shelter, she heard what she believed was the sound of a child crying from a distance so she ran in search of the child instead. The rain made it really difficult to check every cabana for the child but she checked still. The child was not in any of them.
MarmaJ would not give up and she was definitely not going to leave a child stranded on a beach while rains crashed and winds raged. She continued her search, going beyond the cabanas and towards the West end where smalls boats rocked at makeshift docks.
It had been nearly half an hour since MarmaJ had begun her search for this stranded child. She’d thought of giving up on her search and seeking out a shelter from the heavy downpour as it was getting difficult to tell if she indeed heard cries while the winds whistled loudly.
She was now at the West end of the beach searching around the small docks. It was quite dark and with heavy rain pouring over her face, she didn’t see a piece of wood lying before her on the uneven sand, so she tripped over it and sprained her ankle. The growing exhaustion, frustration from falling on the cold water ladened grit, and the onset of the very sharp pain spreading around her left foot had MarmaJ tearing up. Her day had taken an unexpected turn and it now seemed as though her happy place was fast becoming overshadowed by one overwhelmingly horrendous experience.
MarmaJ sat under one of the small docks to get some rest and attend to her sprained ankle. With her bare hands, she tore up the silk wrap that she had tied around her waist and used it to wrap her hurting foot. She had come this far, considerably far away from where everyone else had taken shelter from the rain, so she was going to continue her search for the child. MarmaJ knew her hurting foot was not going to become an excuse to stop, but before she’d moved out from under the dock, she heard the cry of the child again. This time, the sound was very close; the child had to be within 100 meters from where she was.
She got out from under the dock, shouting loudly so the child would hear and respond. MarmaJ called out a second time, the child responded, and she trailed the sound to a small wooden structure roofed with plenty of raffia palms and polythene sheets.
MarmaJ was happy to finally find the child – wide-eyed and ginger-haired. Although she wondered how the child had gotten that far from where the people were clustered before the rain started. Anyway, nothing was as important as the child’s safety and she had to get the child back to her family, but they couldn’t go back at that moment because it was still raining and MarmaJ needed to rest a bit because of her foot. She also knew that the child’s family would definitely be searching for the child too, this meant that she could afford to wait for a few minutes.
To help the girl stay calm, MarmaJ decided to engage her in a conversation. They talked about the girl, MarmaJ asked for her name and about her favourite things, and after a few minutes, they were laughing heartily from Karen’s stories, for that was her name.
It turned out Karen was a 10-year-old girl with the kind of candour and brilliance that made MarmaJ light up. She laughed so much, both thoroughly amused and amazed, that she quite forgot about her sprained ankle or the frustrating experience leading up to her finding Karen.
The rain was subsiding and the winds weren’t blowing hard anymore. MarmaJ had made a new friend and this day had ultimately become a beautiful experience. She was happy she didn’t give up on her search for the girl since she had made a new and lovely friend. The pair of them stepped carefully across the nearly empty beach, waving to Karen’s family who seemed to be searching in the distance.
This was one MarmaJ adventure like no other and she was eager to tell it someday to the kids at this very beach.