Surprise

Yesterday evening just at dusk I went into a fairly choppy, roller coaster surf at Roaring Beach. In the dimmed twilight with the setting sun hidden behind darkening clouds the colors of water, land and sky were a steely grey. The air temperature was cold with a stiff breeze blowing across the water. It wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a cheerful setting.

Yet, being in the water had its own comfort. Different, I thought, than what was being experienced by the lone figure walking at the far end of the beach and cutting a dark silhouette against the dunes.

Catching a breaking wave and riding it in, half my body just keeping ahead of the frothy white, out of the corner of my eye and less than two body lengths away I caught sight of a blue object riding the wave in with me. Yes, there was a micro second when I pissed in my wet suit, but as quick the shocking surreal impact of the initial encounter turned into a laugh at the total incongruity of it all when I realised that what I was looking at was a balloon; a bright, blue balloon.

Unlike most balls or other floating objects, the balloon’s speed and movement in the water was being hampered by the dragging action of an attached long string, making it bob and duck in an animate fashion much like a seal’s head.

We both got to the beach about the same time, but before I could get to the balloon the wind was moving it up the beach faster than I could run while wearing flippers. But flip along I did.

From the far end of the beach, did the man on the log, hunched over in contemplation, gaze upon my end of the beach and, seeing a black wet-suited seal like adult figure wearing blue flippers chasing a blue balloon, have much cause for concern?

When he eventually left for the car park and drove back to his tourist accommodation, did he question what he had witnessed at the lonely Roaring Beach? If he had come depressed, did he leave smiling?

I did.