I strolled along the shore, sandflies biting me, my skin burning under the raging blaze of the sun. It was just another day at the beach for me.
You see, my job is to walk the length of the beach everyday, and make sure that no disturbances take place. A strange job, I know.
When I first took up this job, I was excited and had anticipated everlasting fun days, playing in the sand. But as the days progressed, it just got duller and duller. Nothing ever happened, and being a beach with restricted access, there was never anyone to talk with.
Except for that one day. That one day, when an angel literally descended from the heavens to be with me.
I was taking my usual walk on the beach, when I spotted an object falling from the sky. Excited that something might finally be happening, I continued to watch the falling bulk carefully.
As my gaze remained fixed on the descending mass, I noticed it was getting larger with every passing second.
Soon enough, I realized it was headed right towards me, and so I ran. I ran with all my might, fueled by the fear of getting squashed by some unidentified object descending from above. I sprinted as fast as I could, crushing shells, twigs and anything between my feet and the sand.
After gaining some distance, I turned around, just in time to see the object right before it crashed into the sand.
Upon impact with the ground, tons of sand was thrown into the air, and I was blinded temporarily.
When the sand settled, it was revealed that the mysterious object was what appeared to be a huge android. I knew it was my job to be brave when things like this happen, but I was still scared afterall. Mustering all the courage I could, I slowly and carefully walked up to the behemoth.
I walked all around it, examining it thoroughly, trying to make sense of this android. For a long time, nothing happened. I began to wonder if it was spoilt or something. I mean, it DID fall down from the sky, afterall. It wouldn't be surprising if it wasn't-
*click*
I heard a sound. I looked around to see where it came from, but save the android, there wasn't anything unusual in sight.
*click* *click* *whrrrrrrr*
This time, I was sure the sound came from the android. I figured it was better to hide myself before whatever was going to happen happened, and so I ran further up to land.
I continued to watch the android from my position. After several more clicks, buzzes, and some other strange noises, a hatch opened, and a girl stepped out.
She carried a shield on her back, and a strange-looking rifle in her hand.
I debated with myself whether to approach her or not. She was carrying a rifle, while I was unarmed. Well, it was my job to keep the peace around here, and so I approached her anyway.
I carefully crept up behind her, and, very weakly, said, "Umm..."
Almost instantly, she reacted by turning around and pointing her rifle at me.
I let out an, "Ahh..!!!" and tripped over myself, falling backwards and away from the girl. We were a distance apart, but she quickly closed the gap by throwing down her shield and rushing at me.
She stood over me, one foot on my chest, gun aimed at my head, and asked, "Who are you?" In that moment, the skies seemed so gray and dark.
"I-I mean no harm! I assure you!" I hurriedly said, fumbling over my words a little. She stood silent for a while, then moved her foot off my chest and pointed the rifle upwards. I took the chance to stand up.
"I suppose I can trust you.." she said. The expression on her face was cold, but somehow, I could sense that she was really afraid.
"Haruhi."
"Eh?" I replied.
"My name is Suzumiya Haruhi. Yours?" She asked in return.
"Oh, I'm Mizunaga. Chong Mizunaga." Not knowing what else to say, I asked, "Um.. Shall we take a walk?"
"Why not." She promptly replied.
We began walking, and there was a silence for a moment. Then, I realized, wait a minute. A girl just came falling from the sky. Why am I still acting so normal?
"Um, excuse me for asking this so suddenly, but... Who exactly are you?"
"Hm? I told you I'm Haruhi, didn't I?" She answered.
"No, I mean, where did you come from? And what is that huge.. thing?" Thinking back now, calling it 'thing' was really lame of me.
She remained silent for a moment, then said, "Alright. I'll tell you, but only if you promise me you'll keep it a secret."
If you promise me you'll keep it a secret? Sounds like something a high school girl would say. I thought. "Sure, I promise."
"Well, you see..." She then went on to tell me about how she had come from another planet, and that she had stolen a "mobile suit" to get here. She told me some other stuff too, but I would be breaking my promise if I said anymore.
After she told me her story, I curiously asked her, "But.. why did you come to Earth? I mean, there's nothing to see here. Just lots of trees, water, and sand. And not to mention, it's extremely polluted."
See? A perfect example of how polluted Earth is."That's not true!" She quickly replied. "The Earth is a beautiful place! You have a vast sky, the sun to light your day, and the moon your night. There isn't any sun where I come from."
A world without a sun, eh...? I thought to myself. I looked up to the sky, skeptical that it was as beautiful as she made it to be.
But as I cast my thoughts aside and set my sights on the never ending azure, I understood why she called Earth beautiful. I began to feel rather ashamed with myself for not taking the time to enjoy and notice the beauty that surrounds me everyday.
As I remained staring at the sky, something hit my back at full force. I turned around, and just some ways away, Haruhi stood, waving at me and poised to run.
"Don't space out, or I'll throw another mudball at you!" She said playfully, just before running away.
A smile grew on my face, and I chased after her, yelling, "Hey! Come back here!"
We played around for a long time, until the sun began to set.
"So this is what they call a sunset..." She quietly whispered to herself. "It's beautiful."
With nothing better to say, I simply went, "Yeah, it is."
"Well, I better go now."
"What? You're leaving already?" I didn't like the sound of that, so I tried to convince her to stay, saying, "But you haven't seen the moon yet, or the stars, or the constell-"
"If I stay here any longer, I'll just cause trouble for you." She said. She had a sad look in her eyes. "They will come after me soon. So If I don't leave, you know what's going to happen."
I sighed. After too long, I finally had some company, and to think that I could not do anything to keep that company was devastating. As she began to walk towards her mobile suit, I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Look. I know asking you to stay is out of the picture, but..." I took a deep breath, then continued, "Please. Promise me you'll come back some day."
Neither one of us made a single sound. All I remember in that seemingly everlasting moment of silence, was the sound of the waves, and the warmth of her hand in mine.
I waited for her reply, and when it came, all she said was,
"ばか" (Idiot)
She pulled her hand away from mine, and ran off to her mobile suit. I stood there and watched her climb in through the hatch. The suit activated, and dispersed some green particles, before blasting off into the sky.
Did I ever see her again, after that day? Well, let's just say she's the reason why I'm still keeping my job, and enjoying it.
* * * * *
Well, if you're wondering what this is all about, it's an event in Team Blue, to come up with "Figurative Stories" - to put it simply, figure photoshoots with stories. This FS was done around the "Beach" theme.
I took the photos on a beach in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. As you can see in some of the photos, our beach isn't very clean, and the sand isn't nice and fine, (except further up shore, where there are lots of sandflies ^^;) but instead, rather grainy.
I got a BAD sunburn from this photoshoot, because the sun was really blazing. ^^;
Anyway, I will be posting another FS, that next one being of the "Night" theme. That will be up tomorrow (hopefully).
