Lola and Scottie at the Sea
Lola and Scottie had never been to the sea before. They had heard about it from the safe nook of their forest home. They had squinted their eyes at the leaves rustling in the wind above them and tried to pretend they were looking at the sea. They had pretended the wind was the sound of the waves, that the crows were seagull squawks, the robins chirp the creak of ships, the owls hoot a foghorn bellowing through the mist.
The more they pretended, the more curious they became, so they gathered all their wits and all their treasures in a small rucksack and walked toward the sea.
They came to a desolate sea side village trying to make it's way from the pennies of tourists. But the boardwalk was mostly empty. Pieces of litter, corn dog wrappers, the hollow horns of cotton candy sticks, were bumping around the boardwalk by the wind. They looked around as they walked, passing different storefronts. Sometimes they could see eyes and blurred faces peering at them through the window.
A psychic in a silky gown with scarfs tied in her hair summoned them into her tent as they passed. They looked into the crystal ball together. "I see sunshine." the psychic said. But Lola saw something else. She saw starlings in the air, thousands of them sparkling and glimmering and forming a word that she didn't want to read aloud. She shivered underneath her layer of sweat. She wondered if it was her future or the psychics she saw. Scottie barked and together Lola and her dog left the tent. The psychic cackled behind them. Se said, "come back now, come back again someday."
They stopped and by a the wharf's edge and leaned against the railing. Below they saw the sea lions swirling in circles and barking at each other. Scottie and Lola were hypnotized, but Lola was startled back into reality by a hard tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw an old woman wearing a white t-shirt and a long blue and yellow skirt. Her arm was out stretched and she was holding an ice cream cone. "Strawberry ice cream for a strawberry born child." She said. Lola took the ice cream and thanked the old woman. She licked it tentatively, expecting it was no ordinary ice cream but a potion that would forever transform her. Maybe into a dog. then her and Scottie could roam together as a pack of two forever. But it was just ordinary ice cream and she stayed the same as she always had.
They walked further on the boardwalk and came to a merry-go-round. One man slumped against the lever that made the merry-go-round go. He was humming a song to himself. Something spooky that reminded Lola of a dream she had had once. 'Can we ride it?' She asked. 'Hop a board!' the man said. Lola chose a raspberry colored horse and had Scottie sit in front of her. They went around three times but as it started the fourth time around, the horse escaped the merry-go-round and galloped toward the sea. She stopped at the sand and knelt down so Scottie and Lola could slip off.
They were in front of a puppet show stage. "Now let us tell you a story.' The puppets sang. "It's a story about the sea, Its a story full of secrets told to you by me." As the puppets continued their song of secrets, a sea monster slipped up from the sea and bellowed and shrieked and murmured and splashed back into the sea. Lola watched him and pointed. "Let's go!" she said, her eyes looking toward the sea. Scottie nodded his scruffy head in firm agreement.