Ocean And I

• Audelia Yap, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

People and the ocean, many would think that they are two quite different things, but really, they are very similar.

I sit on the damp sand, watching the waves roar as the wind bites my back. Long reeds dance in the wind as seagulls fly overhead.

Like people, waves may become violent, scaring others away. Maliciously eroding everything around them. People might react aggressively, and cause destruction, just like tidal waves can.

I look around, and there isn’t a single person with me on this beach. My hair blows behind me as the sea starts to calm down. My old, torn dress flies in the wind, like the waves in front of me.

When people calm down after getting angry, others are still fearful of come back, because they are afraid of getting hurt again. People avoid going into the ocean after a storm or cyclone.

My skin is cut and sore, though it was only a year since my life changed, it felt as though it were a whole lifetime since I was a happy normal girl.

The ocean can sometimes be calm… but in less than a day, it can become deadly, aggressive, and thousands or millions of lives can be lost. That is how I felt. Like I had lost so, so much. It was as if there was a hole in my heart. Aching, longing for happiness once more.

I feel hot tears roll down my cheeks. I try not to cry. Tears made me weak. Vulnerable to the outside world.

I wish that my tears would roll away into the sea. I wouldn’t need to feel its uncomfortable warmth. I wouldn’t need to care about my tears, about others, about all the horrible things in the world.

The sand itches my legs, as some rain begins to fall. The clouds above are a violent shade of grey. But I can’t leave. Where would I go? I feel a rock hit my back and I hear cruel laughter. The rock was thrown from kids that have a home. Unlike me.

When a rock is thrown at the ocean, it sinks but is still there, lying at the bottom with many other rocks. It is forgotten, but there is a chance somebody will come along, pick it up, and use it a diamond in the rough. Not to hurt, but to heal.

The ocean is my only friend, I can talk to it without it criticised me. I walk to the shore, and collect a rock. Maybe I could use it to help someone that’s also alone…