The International Writers Magazine: Dreamscapes for Kids:

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The Wave and the Thing • David Russell It was July 15th and it was quite difficult to remember a more perfect day;. the sky, a brilliant blue barely broken by cloud wisps. The ocean reflecting the sky in a series of undulating breakers ll in a race towards the white sand beach. And seagulls flocking everywhere, seeing all.

With his two anxious, giggling tagalongs, he stood on the strand just above where the sand and walk path met. With more than just a passing interest, he watched the tide in it’s race from sea to sand and back. Tall and thin, his shadow painted by the rising sun stretched to the water’s edge, sandwiched by two shorter ones cast by his grandchildren.
The grandfather now in his sixties, was still as reedy as he’d ever been, except now gray had crept into his full head of hair, adding, what his family termed, "character and interest.".

He, his grandson and granddaughter, had come to the beach earlier than usual on what promised to be a steamy day, hoping the ocean breeze would keep it tolerable. On the sand, a summer swim camp group had just arrived and he and the grandkids watched their enthusiastic excitement. Surf boards were dug into the sand, acting as walls on which to drape towels, creating lean-tos for shade against an already harsh sun still on the rise, promising to add another10 degrees before noon .

Soon his two anxious grandkids were pulling and shouting, "Grandpa, come on, we’re going to be late." But, grandpa seemed to be far, far away.

Then, almost as if returning from a long- lost place, he smiled and asked, "How would you kids like some ice cream?" Julia, the 9-year old, immediately struck her exasperated pose, mentally stomping her foot and mimicking her mother, grumping, "we don’t eat ice cream in the morning, it will spoil lunch."

Grandpa, listening to her, could almost hear his daughter, Julia’s mother, sound off in that same non-compromising voice. But, 11-year old Jimmy chimed in with, "Why not! What a great idea, Grandpa. I want a Ocean Blue Cone."
Julia hearing no support, yet ever-the-little-mother, agreed with "Okay! Just this one time. I’ll have what he’s having".

Grandpa walked to the nearby refreshment stand. No, Old Mr. Chester wasn’t there. How could he be? That was over 50 years ago. But, the young man behind the counter sure smiled like Mr. Chester. Grandpa thought, "it must be the magic of the stand that makes everyone who works here smile."

"We’ll have three Ocean Blue cones", he said, declaring himself in for the treat; his tooth as sweet as when he was a kid. After paying the young man, Grandpa led the kids to an umbrella table to get out of the sun. There they sat, busily licking their fast- melting Ocean Blue Ice Cream. No one could honestly tell you what went into the making of the Ocean Blue flavor, except it had some mint, some berries and other mysterious stuff. But who cared, it tasted so good, even at 10:30 in the morning. While they ate, they watched the camp kids gather getting instructions for the morning activities.

Except, grandpa. He wasn’t really seeing this group at all. But rather a group he’d been part of, along with his sister, the kid’s grandma, some 50 years earlier. It was a day very much like today. A high blue sky, puffs of white interrupting the blue, with the ocean like now, at high tide. Three-foot breakers crashed, only to become gentle splashes of bubbling foam, tumbling up on the beach, then spilling quickly back to the sea. He could remember that moment as if it were just happening.

That look he and his camp buddies saw on his friend Eric’s face. Who could ever forget it? Eric had turned almost white, his mouth frozen open, eyes in panic as he stared out to sea. As one, everyone turned to see what Eric saw.
And there racing towards them, was a huge wave, easily 20 feet high, bigger than anyone had ever seen. Fred, the counselor, reacted first, waving his arms and calling everybody out of the water and up to high ground, just about where Grandpa and the kids were seated now busily licking their cones.

He could still feel the same fright and panic he had experienced that morning, back 50 years ago and it must have shown on his face, because Julia and Jimmy were staring at him with quiet, questioning looks.

"What’s the matter Grandpa? Are you sick?", asked Julia. Jimmy, the quiet one, just put his hand on his grandpa’s, as if to say, it’s okay, whatever-it-is? But, he was worried, too.
"No, nothing like that Julia, I’m fine. I was just remembering something that happened a long time ago, when your grandmother Rebecca and I were kids at a beach camp right about here. Something we will never forget".
Jimmy was quick to ask, "What happened? Come on grandpa, tell us".
Julia, who loved Grandpa’s stories even more than Jimmy, echoed,
"Yeah, Grandpa, come on, tell us the story."
"Well, it’s kind of a long story. And, you might miss some of your swimming." "We don’t care", the kids begged". "Tell us!" "Yeah, tell us!".
"You’re sure now?".
"’um-’hum", they both shook their heads together, eyes aglow.
"Okay, lick your cones slow as you can,"

The Wave and The Thing

You see out there, almost as far as you can see. Well, one summer when your grandmother and I were just kids about your ages, for a couple of weeks we went to this same kind of summer beach camp. On our first day, a Monday, we were kind of shy, sort’a getting to meet each other. But, pretty soon we were on what we called boogie-boards, learning how to ride the waves. Most were three-footers, like those waves today. Not too rough, not even for your grandma. Well, we swam, ate our lunches, learned some life saving things, had a final swim and then our grandparents picked us up to go home for dinner. On Day two, that was when it happened for the first time.
"What happened"’, demanded the impatient Julia.
"Shh", Jimmy whispered," let him tell the story."
"Well", continued Grandpa, "We had all arrived that morning and were just fooling around, when this kid Eric got this weird look on his face. His mouth opened wide and stayed that way, his eyes almost popping out of his head and his face turned completely white. We thought he was sick or something. Then, we looked where he was looking and saw it. The biggest, most gigantic wave anyone of us had ever seen."

"And to make it even weirder, the sun seemed to become like a spotlight pointing right at the wave, turning the whole crest to gold. And it was coming right at us. Well, you can imagine how frightened we all were. It took Fred, our leader what seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds to shout, wave his hands and head us out of the water up to high ground, just about where we are right now."

The grandkids, owl-eyed, shouted, "What happened then?"
"Well, you would think a wave that big would swamp the whole beach, but that’s not what happened. Suddenly, just when it reached where those breakers are cresting now, it just flattened out and moved up on the beach a couple of feet and stopped. Just froze right there, just waiting. And, that was the first time we saw it."
"What? What did you see?
"Well, give me a second and I’ll tell you. It’s hard to describe even now, though I’ve seen it maybe 6 or 7 times. I know I’ve never seen anything like it before or since."
"Come on Grandpa, what it was?".
"I’m telling you, it’s hard to describe. Because, first it was one thing, then another, then something else."

"You’re just fooling us," said Jimmy.
"No, honest!" said Grandpa. "I’m not kidding. First, it was in the water splashing around like a fish, all pink and scaly. Next, it stood up straight about 5 foot tall, looking just like a kid with a soft pink skin. Then, it sort of looked like a huge bird. And, it kept changing from one shape to the other. Sometimes soft and squishy, sometimes solid and firm. And, then it did something unbelievable. It stood straight up balancing on a tail that looked just like a mermaid’s. And with that tail, it drew a picture in the sand. A perfect heart. You know, like on a Valentine Card. And suddenly without any warning, it turned all Gold, just like the sun."
"Wow" the kids echoes.
"But, before we really had a chance to study the Golden Heart, the wave came in and washed it all away. Then 'The Thing' seemed to jump on top of the wave and they headed back out to the ocean with ‘The Thing’ riding right on top of the crest like you ride a surfboard. And, poof! They were gone, including the golden spotlight. We kids all looked at each other wondering if we all had seen the same thing. Then everyone was talking all at once and we knew we had all seen it happen, Golden Valentine and all. But you know what was funny, all at once, we were certain of one thing. We all just felt good. We were all smiling and happy. And all talking about ‘The Wave and The Thing’."

"Well, you can imagine all the fuss we raised. Kids and parents were tying up phone lines, telling their versions of the story. It even reached the newspaper, because one of the kids parent’s was a reporter and he came down to the beach and asked us all about what happened."
"Wow, grandpa, you were famous" Julia beamed.
"Not really, because most people thought we made the whole thing up."
And, sly Jimmy, knowing his grandfather’s penchant for story telling, asked, "You didn’t make it up, did you Grandpa?" "No, Jimmy none of us did. But the story didn’t end there. The next day, Wednesday, everybody was there. Parents, photographers, lots of other kids. All looking for ‘The Wave and ‘The Thing’. Except, nothing happened. Nor did anything happen on Thursday. By Friday, the fuss had died down, no reporters or photographers around. Just like that, the story was over. But it wasn’t. Hardly."

"We were back to our small camp group again, out on our boards when Fred who was facing us, teaching us something, suddenly got that same look on his face that Eric had. And began to shout and wave his hands.
"Everyone out of the water. Now!’’, as he herded us up the beach to the high ground.

"Because, we were on our boards it took us longer to reach shore, but when we did, we just dropped them and high-tailed it up the sand."
"Did the same thing happen as last time?", the precise Julie asked.
"Not exactly the same. The wave looked huge, with the sun turning the crest all golden, but it seemed to slow down allowing us time to get out of the water. And, when it neared the beach, just like last time, it flattened out and gently came on shore. And, there was that strange ‘Thing’ again", It stood up, went flat like a fish, flapped like a bird, then made another Valentine Heart with its tail, which the sun turned to gold. Then the wave gathered ‘The Thing’, who seemed to be doing something with a fin or arm, waving at us. Then they were gone, back into the sea. And again, we, all of us, felt so happy."

"But, this time the furor multiplied what happened the first time, thanks to Bob and Mary McArtle, who had arrived in Los Angeles just the day before from Dublin, Ohio. Their vacation project was to visit and film the Southern California Beaches from Malibu to the Mexican Border. They wanted to see what everyone was always talking about, and, then to show their films at the library back in Dublin, where they liked to give travel talks. Fifty years ago there wasn't any video, so you had to use film.

"The McArtle’s had just parked their car, having come from an early morning visit to Zuma, a beach a few miles North. Just as Bob locked his car door, camera in hand, the whole wave thing started and Bob filmed away, including the arrival of us scrambling camp kids up next to him on the high ground.

"After the excitement was over little Nancy Littlefield, whose dad was the newspaper man took charge. 'My daddy will give you a lot of money for that film'.
McArtle, a bit of a tightwad, thought to himself, 'Maybe I can make a some money out of this to help pay for the trip.'

Meanwhile, Nancy raced to where her clothes were, calling out, "Just wait here, I’ll get my dad". She had to borrow ten cents for the phone but a minute later, she was telling her dad what happened and about the film."
"Keep him there, Nancy, I’ll be there quick as I can", said daddy Littlefield.
"Breaking a few speed laws on the way, Mr. Littlefield was soon agreeing he wanted to buy the film and Mr. McArtle was agreeing he was willing to sell it, if he could get at least one copy for himself.

In the next day’s paper and all over television everyone was talking about ‘The Wave & The Thing’. In fact, it seems like it was on television every fifteen minutes even thoough it was all black and white then and a bit fuzzy.

One of the people who saw the TV pictures was Professor Otto Baumgarten, Head of the University’s Science Laboratory, who smacked his lips, saying to Mrs. Baumgarten, "I sure would like to learn more about that ‘Thing’, adding, it would be good for the school. That’s what he said, but what Mrs. Baumgarten heard was, it would also be very good for her husband. And, she knew just what to do about it. She called her brother, Commander Joe Glenn, head of the state Air National Guard and told him the whole story. Commander Joe agreed that studying 'The Thing' would be a good idea. Ten minutes later he was on the phone explaining that to his boss in Washington.".
"Oh, grandpa that’s mean. Did they get ‘The Thing’?" asked Julie. "Well, you have to understand we were just kids and didn’t know anything about any of this. I only learned the whole story a couple of years later. Back then none of us kids knew what was happening. The Washington Boss talked to his Big Washington Boss who also agreed it would be a good thing for science and medical research to learn about ‘The Thing’. So he gave the go-ahead for Commander Joe to try to capture it."

"I don’t think I’m going to like this part", said Jimmy.
"Don’t worry, Jimmy, it all has a happy ending, you’ll see", said Grandpa, continuing his story.
"The next day the brightest minds in the Air Guard planned for the best way to make the capture. And a plan was hatched. Only, ‘The Wave & The Thing’ didn’t come all weekend, nor on Monday, nor Tuesday, nor on Wednesday or Thursday. And, Friday was our last day at camp. That morning right after we arrived, things began to happen. A cloud which had been blocking the sun, suddenly cleared out of the way and the sun’s rays narrowed, as they had before, pointing a beam down just as the giant wave came over the horizon heading straight for us. Knowing what to expect, we all moved away from the water’s edge and up the beach, but not as far as we had in the past. Just far enough. Well, the wave kept coming, but before it reached the beach, it flattened out and gently rode up on the sand."

"And, there it was, ‘The Thing’ seeming to be smiling at us. But, as it began to draw a heart in sand, out of nowhere a copter with a silent motor suddenly swooped down, dropped what looked like a parachute completely covering ‘The Thing'."
"In seconds the corners were pulled tight like you do with a fishing net and ‘The Thing’ was lifted up in the air, then set down next to a large waiting truck. It all happened so fast, we were stunned. Because the copter was so silent neither we nor ‘The Thing’ heard it coming,"

"Fifteen-minutes later, it was all over. The truck was gone. And the wave went back out into the ocean, rising to its full height and stopping there, watching and waiting. After a while it just left, the sun dimmed and the clouds came back to block the sun. And you know what? We all felt very sad.
"I’m sad, too, Grandpa?" said Jimmy.
"We kids didn’t know what to do. No one felt like swimming or kidding around or anything. We just waited to be picked up to go home.".
"Oh, the poor ‘Thing’. What happened next?", Julie asked, as she slid onto grandpa’s lap for a cuddle.
"We didn’t hear a thing for a couple of days.
"Then on television we saw a story from the University Medical School, where they said. that though they were keeping ‘The Thing’ in a small pool, they hadn’t found anything it would eat and it was beginning to lose it’s lovely, pink color. Moreover, since they had learned absolutely nothing about what it was or what it did, they were worried it might get sick, might even die."

"The next day, at a University meeting, someone suggested maybe sea water should be used in the pool. Another person thought ‘The Thing’ needed sunshine. Another member, a woman who had two young children, said, it just looked sad, lonely and frightened.
"Dr. Baumgarten thought they might all be right and in just two weeks, working with the Mayor, they had a crew build a tent laboratory with a pool in it right on the beach so sea water could be pumped in and out. However, Dr. Baumbarten insisted that a wall be erected facing the sea, so ‘The Wave’ and ‘The Thing’ couldn’t signal to each other."
"That was so mean." insisted Julia.
"But, that wasn’t all", Grandpa continued, " they also put a mesh metal cage over the ‘Thing’s’ pool to make escape impossible and they had a guard at the entrance 24 hours every day."
"Could you visit ‘The Thing’? asked Jimmy.
"Well, mainly scientist’s and doctors were there, but they also had people visiting hours. And, all that seemed to help. ‘The Thing’ got food from the sea water, the sun made it feel good and when people came, especially kids like us, it began to glow again with its skin turning nice and pink.
"But, even though it seemed to be healthier, it still looked sad. I know, because we were staying near the beach at our grandparent’s house. So, we came to see it all the time."
"I wish I could have been there", said Jimmy.
"Me, too" echoed Julia. "What happened next?"
"Well, one day your grandmother and I and a couple of our friends from camp were visiting it and we began to think of how we might set ‘The Thing’ free so it could go back and join ’The Wave’. But, what could we do? We were just kids.". Impatiently, Julia interrupted, "Did you do it, did you set it free?"

"What we knew was on Wednesdays the exhibit was closed. No one came to see ‘The Thing’, not even the people from the University. And there was only one guard there all day. Her name was Mrs. Herman. So, we got this idea, that if we could get Mrs. Herman away from the tent for a little while maybe we could set it free. And, we planned to be on the beach Wednesday morning around eleven o’clock.".

"Wow, Grandpa, what happened?, We’re you able to free it?", asked Jimmy, hardly able to contain himself.
"Well, we were all there on time. What our friends didn’t know was that your grandmother Rebecca and I had cooked up a little idea. When we told the other kids, they could hardly keep from giggling out loud.".
"What was the plan? What was it?", asked Julia, bouncing up and down.
"What Rebecca did was go up to Mrs. Herman, hopping up and down, moaning "I have to use the toilet, I have to use the toilet." Mrs. Herman pointing to it, said, "Honey, it’s right up there next to the refreshment stand, go ahead.".
"My mother doesn’t let me go to the toilet by myself and those boys can’t go with me. Please, please take me, I have to go real bad. Hurry."
"Mrs. Herman had a daughter about Julia’s age and decided that Julia needed her help right then, so she turned to us guys and said, ‘stand over here by the entrance and don’t let anyone in the tent till we get back."

One of the boys, Pete, to make it seem even more convincing, complained "Ah, do we have too? I want to go swimming."
"We’ll only be a minute", called Mrs. Herman "just stand here, we’ll be right back" she said, taking Julia’s hand and marching up towards the Woman’s restroom.
That’s what she thought, but not with Rebecca, the little actress. Rebecca was going to moan and sob and groan and keep Mrs. Herman off the beach for a good five minutes.

"Quickly, three of us entered the tent. When ‘The Thing’ saw us, it seemed to smile. Though it hadn’t said a word, we could clearly hear in our heads what sounded like ‘Help me. Help me.'
"The cage was too heavy for any one of us, even two of us to lift, but three could manage it easily, and we did, raising it high and ‘The Thing’ slid right out.

I said, "Quick, tell your friend ‘The Wave’ to come in and cover the beach so it looks as if it set you free, then we won’t get into trouble.". ‘The Thing’ fairly beamed and we all heard in our heads, a voice saying ‘we will, we will.’
‘And thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Next thing we knew, ‘The Thing’ seemed to be ‘running’ to the water’s edge while almost simultaneously, that wave was coming at us faster than it had ever come before. It swept right up on the beach and wiped it clean; no tent, no cage, no pool, no wall. What we could see however, was a huge heart of gold.
"Rebecca and Mrs. Herman came out of the restroom just in time to see the wave wash everything away. So, we were never blamed.
"Soon though, the golden glow faded and the beach was just like usual."
"Wow, grandpa, you and grandma were very brave. You saved ‘The Thing’.’ smiled Julia.
"Did it ever come back?" asked Jimmy.
"Not that I’ve heard."

Julia, staring out at the ocean with questioning eyes, asked, "Do you think it will ever come back again?"
"Never can tell", answered Grandpa Aaron. "Say, isn’t it time we got in some swimming?"
Then, looking at the sun casting a golden glow on a wave way out there near the horizon, Grandpa Aaron added, "Aren’t you kids planning to go a beach camp next summer?".

© David Russell October 2008

for my Grandchildren Aaron Michael & Rebecca Faye who are considering attending a Beach Camp this Summer.

"The Wave" & "The Thing" has been registered at the United States Post Office, Pacific Palisades, Ca.
On April 1, 2003. All rights are retained by the author, David Russell, 811 Radcliffe Avenue, Pacific Palisades, Ca., 90272. No use of materials contained herein may be used without the expressed written consent of the author or Trustee(s) of the author’s estate..

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