Eastern Seaboard Vacation 5: A Girl in Tears
We got back from whale watching and tower climbing very tired. But after resting a while, I felt restless, so I went out for a walk. I had no idea how strangely a simple stroll would go.
The night was beautiful--warm and breezy with a full moon and the smell of the ocean. I wandered down the road and came around a curve. There I saw ahead of me a dead end that had a little parking area in it lit by a mercury lamp. A staircase led downward, and the ocean spread out in the distance. How lovely! This needed exploring!
However, a car was parked under the mercury lamp. This meant that someone was down there already. This kind of thing gets tricky at night. This struck me as the kind of place teenagers went for . . . romance, and a strange adult male wandering by in the dark would make for all kinds of awkward for everyone involved.
As I drew closer, adolescent voices wafted up the staircase, meaning I was right. The voices were getting louder, too, which meant they were coming up. I didn't feel like interacting with these kids, so I ducked into the yard of a house near the staircase. The yard was separated from the road by a high fence and some bushes, and I stuck to the shadows in there. The teens reached the top of the stairs, and I heard a boy and a girl.
"I know I heard someone up here," the girl said. (My footsteps were indeed loud on the gravel.)
"He must have gone that way," the boy said. "Get in and start the car."
This sparked a minor argument between them. I waited quietly. In the end, the girl said, "It's like being in a horror movie." The car started. Judging from the sounds I heard, the boy walked around some more, then also got in. The car drove away.
But wait . . .
Once they were completely gone, I emerged from hiding and strolled down the steps. At the bottom, I found a beach and a quiet cove. Perhaps two dozen boats of varying sizes and quality floated at anchor on the softly lapping water. Even more kayaks and rowboats were scattered all over the shore. A bit farther up the beach sat a giant boulder the size of a small house. It was striking both for its size and unusual placement. I wondered how it got there. A trick of the ice age? Or had humans actually hauled it in? I couldn't see any reason for the latter and decided it had to be the former.
I wandered around the beach for a while, enjoying the water and the moon.
Eventually it was time to leave. I went back up the staircase and had just left the circle of mercury light when headlights came around the curve in the road and stopped. It was the teenager car. I was caught out now. No way for me to duck into hiding--the light behind me illuminated my shadow. So I just kept walking. I had no reason not to be on a public road, after all, so the awkward would just have to be awkward.
A car door opened and shut. Abruptly, the car turned around and zoomed away. The girl I'd heard earlier was left on the road. She walked toward me, and I heard her crying. Full, gut-wrenching tears. She continued walking toward me, and I crossed the road to be opposite her. She passed me by, still weeping, and I could see that she was drenched. Soaked from head to foot. Her long hair was an unruly, wet mess down her back and her clothes were sticking to her body.
She walked past me, crying her eyes out, either ignoring me or not noticing me. I kept on walking, too. There was nothing I could do. A strange man in the dark wouldn't be a source of help to a crying teenage girl!
The girl reached the staircase and glided down the steps. The darkness swallowed her up, and she was gone. I never learned a thing about her.
I walked back to the flat.
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The night was beautiful--warm and breezy with a full moon and the smell of the ocean. I wandered down the road and came around a curve. There I saw ahead of me a dead end that had a little parking area in it lit by a mercury lamp. A staircase led downward, and the ocean spread out in the distance. How lovely! This needed exploring!
However, a car was parked under the mercury lamp. This meant that someone was down there already. This kind of thing gets tricky at night. This struck me as the kind of place teenagers went for . . . romance, and a strange adult male wandering by in the dark would make for all kinds of awkward for everyone involved.
As I drew closer, adolescent voices wafted up the staircase, meaning I was right. The voices were getting louder, too, which meant they were coming up. I didn't feel like interacting with these kids, so I ducked into the yard of a house near the staircase. The yard was separated from the road by a high fence and some bushes, and I stuck to the shadows in there. The teens reached the top of the stairs, and I heard a boy and a girl.
"I know I heard someone up here," the girl said. (My footsteps were indeed loud on the gravel.)
"He must have gone that way," the boy said. "Get in and start the car."
This sparked a minor argument between them. I waited quietly. In the end, the girl said, "It's like being in a horror movie." The car started. Judging from the sounds I heard, the boy walked around some more, then also got in. The car drove away.
But wait . . .
Once they were completely gone, I emerged from hiding and strolled down the steps. At the bottom, I found a beach and a quiet cove. Perhaps two dozen boats of varying sizes and quality floated at anchor on the softly lapping water. Even more kayaks and rowboats were scattered all over the shore. A bit farther up the beach sat a giant boulder the size of a small house. It was striking both for its size and unusual placement. I wondered how it got there. A trick of the ice age? Or had humans actually hauled it in? I couldn't see any reason for the latter and decided it had to be the former.
I wandered around the beach for a while, enjoying the water and the moon.
Eventually it was time to leave. I went back up the staircase and had just left the circle of mercury light when headlights came around the curve in the road and stopped. It was the teenager car. I was caught out now. No way for me to duck into hiding--the light behind me illuminated my shadow. So I just kept walking. I had no reason not to be on a public road, after all, so the awkward would just have to be awkward.
A car door opened and shut. Abruptly, the car turned around and zoomed away. The girl I'd heard earlier was left on the road. She walked toward me, and I heard her crying. Full, gut-wrenching tears. She continued walking toward me, and I crossed the road to be opposite her. She passed me by, still weeping, and I could see that she was drenched. Soaked from head to foot. Her long hair was an unruly, wet mess down her back and her clothes were sticking to her body.
She walked past me, crying her eyes out, either ignoring me or not noticing me. I kept on walking, too. There was nothing I could do. A strange man in the dark wouldn't be a source of help to a crying teenage girl!
The girl reached the staircase and glided down the steps. The darkness swallowed her up, and she was gone. I never learned a thing about her.
I walked back to the flat.
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