Lacey had never been to a beach. So of course, she had to try everything. She had just finished the swimming thing, where one entered the ocean to float around or dive under the water – but not for too long, as the human body required oxygen. When she licked the water off her lips they were salty.
Then, there was this other activity called “building sand castles”, which involved molding the sand into elaborate structures for others to admire. She wanted to make her mother proud by making one of her own.
It should be easy. Already, she could imagine the towers and walls and roofs and eaves. It would be amazing and her mother would love it, and she would praise her for building something so beautiful.
Thus, she set out to build her sand castle.
It wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
Sand, as Lacey soon realized, didn’t much like staying where she put it, opting to slide away into a shapeless heap instead, no matter how often she tried. She figured that she was missing something, but wasn’t sure what. If only she knew its secrets. It was frustrating and unfair.
With an annoyed huff, she kicked at the formless heap in front of her. Maybe it was a good thing that she hadn’t promised her mother a sand castle yet because she feared that she wasn’t going to finish one after all.
This activity was stupid anyway, Lacey thought. It was a stupid thing that only stupid humans did.
Abandoning her plans, she looked across the beach and spotted a flock of birds.
Now, birds didn’t build sand castles.
Birds just sat there, pecking at the various things that the ocean washed up. Lacey knew that some of the things were algae. Some of them were clams. Some of them were jellyfish.
The birds were also very interested in the bodies, but the birds liked them for different reasons than Lacey did.
While Lacey enjoyed the colorful bikinis and swimming trunks that expressed such diverse tastes and personalities, the birds only cared for the meat.
Instead of building her mother a sand castle, Lacey decided to collect pretty sea shells for her instead. This activity was foolproof. All she had to do was bend down and pick them up, whenever she found one that suited her standards.
With a skip in her step, Lacey strolled along the coastline, grabbing shells of interesting colors or shapes, going further and further.
“Lacey!”
Uh-oh. Her mother sounded angry. She had set down her book and there was concern in her eyes.
“Don’t go too far, dear.”
Right. It was almost time.
Looking down at her collection thus far, Lacey decided they were good enough for her mother and turned around.
She was still very young and had to change fairly often. This would be the fifth time since they came to the beach.
This body would join the others, soon to lose the beautiful coloring of its flesh, turning into a pale, bloated mess like all the rest. It was a shame.
When Lacey grew up, she wanted to end in a body as pretty as her mother’s. Until then, she’d take whatever her mother chose for her next.
NotHack Europa 