A Day at the Beach

We drove the half-hour to Port Rowan to a pizza place and had lunch before making our way to Long Point. A bird sanctuary, village and Ontario Park, Long Point boasts some of the nicest beaches in Ontario.

We follow a path strewn with needles through the piney woods towards the sandy dunes of Long Point. We are all smiles with a bounce to our step. Rain and I find deer tracks (a doe and her fawn) and we follow them until the sand is unsheltered and the wind has reshuffled the grains smooth once again. The sound of ring-billed gulls is heard over the surf and wind creating that illusion of summertime when their shrill voices fight over the greasy fastfood feast left by sunburnt sunbathers. Trees have there branches swaying in the breeze and appear to want to bud once again in the not so distant future. A couple sit on a bench back from the beach and look to be cooing at each other; holding hands, smiling and planting the odd kiss. Theo begins scouring for stones for her next project and Rain collects shells. Cassidy digs in the sand until her hands become too wet which chills them. She runs to me to warm them up by blowing on them and rubbing them. Rain and Cassidy climb a dune and roll down it over and over while I spy a log half buried in the sand where I lay down to soak up the sun. Theo is still searching for stones. I fall into a reverie feeling calm and peaceful. The world is a beautiful place and I feel we are in paradise. I get up and look around. Theo is still at work and the girls are out of sight. I walk up a dune and call for them. No answer. I call a little louder and Rain responds, but no Cassidy. I call out very loudly and still no answer. I frantically search the landscape to no avail. I begin to panic, but force myself to remain calm. Rain begins to search for her and Theo finally realizes the situation and begins to help search for Cassidy. The trees are leafless and dead looking. There are plastic bags hanging from branches in shreds from the winter wind. Other people out on a Sunday stroll all are all evil doers just waiting to snatch my child away. I remember seeing a scruffy looking couple earlier in our walk and wonder if they have run off with Cassidy. He looked like some deadbeat biker with his dyed blonde bimbo who was trying to hang onto the last vestiges of a youth long gone. Theo spots Cassidy and I can breath again. "We're going home" I say. I berate Cassidy for going too far away from her family, but this is just my fear in its death throes. I am relieved and happy to be on the piney path once again, sheltered from the harsh open world.