Finding Something Today

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica clung desperately to the handle of the car door as her family pulled into the beach parking lot, her nose just centimetres from pressing against the window. With her free hand she checked that the contents of her small tool belt were still all present and accounted for, then pushed away one of her brother's sticky hands as he tried to reach into the pocket after her. "No, E." Her eyes were still glued on a point outside the window as she softly jabbed the boy in the side, sending both he and his twin into a series of loud wails. By that point, however, the car had rolled to a stop and Veronica had practically tumbled out of the door in an effort to get down to the beach, almost bashing the camera around her neck into the side of the car as she did so.

Reaching the edge of the sand, she paused only briefly to tear off her sandals before pulling a notebook and pen out of one of the tool belt pockets. Striding purposefully across the sand, and ignoring her mother shouting at her for abandoning her shoes, Veronica peered at her watch and then scratched the date, time, and name of the beach onto a clean page before looking down the scrutinise the ground. She was intent upon finding shells today, the shells were very important for more practice. And she wanted some of the sand too, she had potion vials for the sand, and stoppers. Stoppers were very important. Shoving the pen and notebook messily back into the tool belt, her hand re-emerged clutching three vials, each of which was tossed to the ground as Veronica fell heavily to her knees and began busily digging into the sand, unconcerned by her hair blowing in her face and the tiny grains of sand becoming encrusted beneath her nails.

 

[Tomas Wode]

Tomas ran as hard as he could while trying to keep up with the Australian shepherd running in front of him through the sand. He had left his family behind at a restaurant a few kilometres back because he could not sit still any longer and asked if he could bring the dog with him so they could play fetch together. It was his first time in New Zealand and he absolutely loved it here; the good weather, the wilderness, the beautiful sandy beaches and the much larger cities were all things you wouldn't find back in Peterborough. No, compared to this Peterborough was boring with their rainy days, the lake and old buildings. Tomas would rather move to New Zealand instead of staying in England. "Max!" Tomas shouted as he tried his best to keep up with the dog, hoping that he would slow down because Tomas could feel his legs growing tired of running along the edge of the sand. But unfortunately for him it seemed like the dog was not done running just yet so, no matter what his body told him, neither was he.

Tomas had shouted the dog's name a couple of times but no matter how hard he did so the dog seemed to be enjoying the run a bit too much. Max finally stopped and Tomas, who had sweat dropping from his forehead, slowed his pace, wondering if the dog had run enough for today or just wanted to rest for a bit before running off again. The boy quickly caught up with the dog only to see him barking playfully at a girl who seemed to be busy digging into the sand. Tomas smiled and laughed while being out of breath, and hugged the dog before turning his attention towards the dark-haired girl.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica had finished filling the first vial by the time she decided that they'd need labels. She thought she had labels somewhere. She picked through each of the pockets in her tool belt before realising that no, of course she hadn't brought labels with her. Labels required forethought, planning. She would have to - labels, sticky, paper, water. A smile breaking out across her face, Veronica pulled the notebook back out and tore some paper from the bottom of the new page she had just started. Grabbing the vials, and dropping the notebook in the process, she pushed to her feet and, teetering on pins and needles she hadn't realised were there, took off for the edge of the waves. She allowed a few to run over her feet before she crouched down and placed the paper on the wet sand, allowing it to absorb the dampness rather than let it become a completely soggy mess. After a bit of experimentation, Veronica soon had all the makeshift labels wrapped around the vials and had made her way back to continue digging in the sand.

She had finished filling the second vial by the time she realised that it was too hard to write on the labels she had just so carefully affixed. Too much pressure could tear the damp paper. Writing on such a small curve was a bit of a challenge. She stared, blinking, at the labels before tossing them to the ground with a shrug. She still had one more vial to fill, and then it could be a proper problem. Veronica threw herself back into digging. She was about halfway to the depth she wanted when she heard a soft thudding sound, followed quickly by a series of sharp little barks. Raising her head, Veronica took in the dog before her, smiling widely. "Hello! Is it your beach that you're barking so?" She didn't pause in her task, continuing to dig as she talked to the dog. "What am I doing, you ask? Digging of course, you can see that. Oh, but why? Of course you meant why, what was I thinking? You'll have to forgive me." Looking up to smile at the dog, she was about to answer when she noticed a boy running up towards her. Her suspicions were confirmed when he hugged the dog, and she turned the smile upon him. "Hello! I thought your dog was the warden, but it seems he's the escapee." The fact that the boy was out of breath from a chase down the beach was rather obvious.

 

[Tomas Wode]

Tomas smiled at the girl and continued to pet the dog on his back. ''H-He didn't escape!'' the ten year old said defensively during breaths. ''Max just didn't want to stop running.'' Exhausted from chasing his dog, Tomas plopped down on the sand and curiously looked at the hole the girl was digging into the sand while breathing heavily. ''What a-are you d-doing?'' he asked her, still looking at the hole, not noticing the vials lying next to the girl. He couldn't help to wonder himself why the girl was digging a hole. Maybe she wanted to find shells that were buried deep in the sand, or perhaps she was going to make some sort of sandcastle. Whatever it was that she was doing, Tomas did not seem to care as he was getting distracted when a boy and his mother passed them with a coloured kite flying in the air. It was when the kite was no longer in sight that Tomas turned his attention back to the girl, closing his mouth because it been open while looking at the kite. Max, who was still being petted on the back lay down beside Tomas while the boy was waiting for the girl to answer his question, or repeat it because he may have missed it completely.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica tipped her head sideways, the smile spreading slowly across her face. "Max?" Realising that this must be the name of the dog, she turned once more to the canine. "Well, Max, 'they stumble that run fast,' you know." Hesitantly, her hand rose out of the pit she was digging to see if the dog would accept her touch, and her heart skipped a little as Max happily pushed his head forward to take advantage of the affection. Continuing to scratch at the dog's ears, she began answering the boy's question. "I'm digging. The question I'm sure you mean to ask is why I'm digging, because that you can't tell unless you can read my mind. Which isn't impossible, of course, but you're not supposed to be able to do that until you're older, if at all. I suppose the only way to tell would be a test, so." Veronica sat up straight and closed her eyes, placing both hands on her knees. "What am I thinking right now?" She waited in silence for a moment, before frowning slightly and opening one eye to check why the boy wasn't guessing. The whole point of the 'I don't know, let's find out' game, was to actually discover an answer to the proposed question. Opening her other eye, she said, "Unless, your guess is nothing, in which case you can't read my mind."

 

[Tomas Wode]

The boy smiled when Max allowed the girl to scratch him behind his ears, and continued to stroke him on his back, even scratching it from time to time. Wiping sweat from his forehead again, Tomas listened while she talked and shrugged his shoulders when she asked him to guess what she was thinking about. ''How am I suppose to know that?'' he said, clearly not a fan of being put on the spot ''Can't you just tell me why you are digging into the sand, or are you just that bored of having no one around to play with?'' Tomas asked, not caring how it might sound to the girl because it wasn't meant to be rude. ''We can swim if you're bored? I bet you mom and dad wouldn't mind Max and me getting all wet, they are not finished eating anyway.''

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica's brow creased slightly as her face fell. Suddenly unsure of herself, she looked back down at her hands, which were now clenched tightly atop her knees. She had thought... but of course, she couldn't expect... Swallowing, she tried to affect a nonchalant tone. "Well, I wanted to know whether you could read minds or not, but it seems the answer to that question is no. An answer deserves an answer, so the answer to your question is I need the sand. For testing. I mean - I'm testing something with the sand, not the sand itself - I don't really have any technology with which to test the sand, even though that could be quite interesting now that I think about it... " Veronica suddenly grabbed the first vial she had filled from the ground and practically thrust it under the boy's nose, almost dislodging her makeshift label in the process, the one that actually had writing on it. "See, I've noted the time, date, and place of sand collection, as well as the approximate depth of where I collected it."

She didn't mention that the measurements were actually more like complete guesswork for now, as she didn't have a ruler in any of her pockets and had had to place her arm in the hole and draw where the sand level came up to each time. She could measure the marks properly when she got back home, and get her mum to change the labels with her wand. Pulling back, Veronica placed the vial down again next to the others, and resumed digging in order to fill up the last one with sand from the very bottom of the hole, sand that was mixed more thoroughly with the water and was therefore more liquid than solid. Scooping the sand up, she made sure the vial was tightly corked, and then placed her arm back in the hole to measure this last depth. "So I'm not bored, and I don't have time to swim. Not yet, anyway. After this I have to find shells." Marking the depth on her arm, she turned to peer up at the boy through the hair all over her face. "Are you bored? Is that why you brought it up? That's very rude to Max, you know."