The Beach

I could hardly wait for the next morning. I was kept awake by imagining the summer week on the beach that lay before me. My mind was filled with thoughts of Gidget and Moondoggie and Frankie and Annette. Yes, I could hardly wait for the morning to come.
Morning did come, and after a quick breakfast, Karen and I headed straight to the beach. Karen was the teen girl in the family that had brought me to the beach for a week's vacation. She was tall and dark, with a great figure. Her stomach was flat and her hips narrow. She was blessed with quite a chest and her full, long dark hair reached to her waist. To top it off, she had the cutest dimples, and a dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks. She and I both had on a one-piece swim suit, and that was because her mother insisted and because that was all I had brought with me. I didn't care, I just wanted to be on the beach, in the water and boy watching. As we ran along the sand, I could hear the waves lapping and once again, the scent of the ocean assaulted my senses. Everywhere I looked, couples walked hand in hand, children played on the beach, parents sunned themselves in close proximity to thier children and even a few dogs ran in and out of the waves. Buffed young men batted volley balls while toned young women admired them. Most of the girls were wearing bikinis, some of them very brief. Other girls were dressed like me and some of them were quite chubby. For a moment, I lost my confidence as I considered that perhaps I looked like them. Looking down at my almost flat stomach and large but firm thighs I decided that I was who I was and couldn't change anything right then. I did wish that my breasts were bigger, but that was something I just wasn't graced with. I asked Karen what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to sun for awhile. She asked me if I could be trusted. I said of course I could, why did she want to know? With a grin, she reached into her beach bag and pulled out a large beach towel. She gave me the towel and told me to unfold it and hold it up in front of her. I did as she asked, and she once again reached into her beach bag. Curious, I peeked to see what she was holding, and all I could see was a couple of colorful fabric scraps. Why, that was the tiniest bikini I had ever seen! Laughing at the expression on my face, Karen snaked out of her one piece and into that bikini. She changed right there on the beach, but she was so fast, she was covered before I could even gasp. There she stood, her magnificent chest barely covered and her bottom snugly but scantily gracing what should have fit a four-year-old. Her belly button was even cute, and she was really something. Lastly, she pulled out a large t-shirt and tossed it down on the towel. She explained that in the unlikely event that her parents came down to the beach, she could quickly cover up. Lying back on the towel, she looked like a water nymph, and to give the best effect possible, she spread her long thick hair out around her. Well, now I really began to feel like a dowd. But there were unexpected benefits to having Karen exposed. Before long, some young men began to gravitate over to us. The Karen I had met on the trip down to Florida dissappeared, and a sultry, exotic and very attractive man magnet appeared. Suddenly I knew how it must have felt to be in the presence of Scarlette O'Hara at the bar-b-que. Never having been in such a situation, I was content to sit and watch her work the crowd. There were at least six boys to begin with and she introduced me to them. They gave me a perfunctory hello, but for the most part I was just a decoration in the Karen show. After a while of watching those boys preen and pose for her, I decided to walk down to the water and look for shells. Karen didn't even know I had gone. My cheerfulness returned quickly as I walked in the waves. Tiny little shells were everywhere, and I thought that maybe I could find a large seashell to take back to Mindy. I guess it didn't occur to me that there would be no large shells with all of the tourists. Many of them were looking for shells too. Finally, I just sat down on the water's edge and let the waves lap over me. I didn't know what to expect on this first time ever at the ocean's edge, but I was surprised at the different things going on all at once. There was brown seaweed floating over and under the water, and touching it, I found that it felt like weeds on the land. The sand quickly got into my swimsuit and began to itch in the most embarrassing places. The waves actually lifted me as they came up on shore, and tiny little crabs scurried out of the way as they avoided me. There were sea birds diving and screeching, dipping up and down on black tipped wings that were pointed at the end. Once in awhile, one of them would successfully snatch something from the water, while others continued to try to find their breakfast. The wind was soothing and warm, scented with the smells of the ocean, something fishy, sun tanning lotion and concession food from the vendors on the beach. Before we had left the hotel room, Karen's mother gave us some money in case we needed it. Now I knew why. I became curious as to the offerings of the vendors, and walked away from the water to the concession stands. There was the usual tourist fare, offering cold drinks, snow cones, hot dogs and french fries and corn dogs. A community ketchup bottle had drips of ketchup running from the mouth of the bottle, and some of it was drying in the warm air. There were several kinds of chips and candy bars kept in the freezer. Finally, I saw the ice cream stand that already had a line of swimmers waiting for a cold treat. The trash cans were open and when people were not near them, birds would swoop down hoping for a treasure. There were signs everywhere telling tourists not to feed the birds, and I soon realized that if the birds were enticed with food, they would poop everywhere as they tried to get to it. Looking beyond the concession stands, I saw a line of souvenier shops. These shops lined a street at the beginning of the beach and I felt a little thrill of excitement at the thought of walking through to see what they offered. Looking back at the beach, I saw that Karen was surrounded by even more boys and decided that she would not want to be disturbed. I wished Mindy was with me, she would have had so much fun in the shops. I decided to find her a little souvenier if I could. Before long, I found myself in a tourist's wonderland. There were so many different items, it would take all day to see everything. I decided to just visit the first store on the strand and see if Karen would like to go with me later to see the others. The first store was completly open to the front, with souveniers hanging to entice passerbys. There were flip-flop sandals in all colors, colorful Hawiian leis, t-shirts and beach bags. Further in the shop I saw the entire back wall covered with shelves holding seashells of all sizes. Some of them were huge, but looking at the prices, I knew that I would not be able to get one of them. Next to the seashells were displays of items made from seashells. There were tiny little glass bottles with seashells in them. Some of the bottles had tiny shark's teeth. There were seashell animal creations, starfish of all sizes and necklaces with shell pendants. I saw bracelets and rings too, and hoped I could get something like that for Mindy. Yes, there were so many things to see, but I was just hypnotized by the carved coconut shells. There before my eyes were coconut shells carved into monkeys. Really, they were very ugly, but to my young eyes, they were wonderful. Some of them had hair, some were large and some were small, but all of them were fabulous. Somehow, I would take a carved coconut monkey home with me. I didn't know it then, but there were other wonderful souveniers to see in other shops. The monkeys were great, but not as great as some of the other things that I would see in the days that followed.