LYLM Ch12: The Beach

As best I could make out, we were at the foot of a column of small hills
that stretched like an uneven barricade before us.

I looked ahead at the small waves that silently caressed the sand, and
carefully listened to the soft sound of the sea flowing and ebbing, flowing and
ebbing. Listening carefully, it sounded like a constant resonance of muffled
applause. At times the water seemed so certain and brave as it spread onto the
beach, drenching and consuming everything in its path.

A mass of clouds draped over the sea, dense and thick and dark at the centre,
but thinning out on the fringes to resemble soft swabs of cotton buds carelessly
littered across the night sky.

In the distance, yellow and orangey lights flickered and sparkled. I imagined the thousands, or perhaps even millions, of poor souls who were crowded in the sprawl of cities, trapped in a world far, far away from the one in which Leo and I found ourselves.