Martin and the Beach

 

It was a warm night. 

 

Outside, the air smelled like Spring.  Martin the B Keeper and Rubber the E Raiser were feeling restless.  They decided to go for a walk.

“Let’s walk to the beach!” said Martin.

“Lead the way Martin.” Said Rubber.

 

They took Rubber’s dog, Wingdings.

 

They walked down the main street of town to the beach.  After all the lights of the street the beach seemed dark and cool.  Martin and Rubber walked along the sand, right next to the water so they could hear the waves lapping near their feet.  Wingdings ran off ahead, sniffing at everything.

 

Martin and Rubber walked until they came to the docks.  The docks were lit up, bright as day.  An old, narrow pier ran out to sea near the docks.  They wandered out to the end.

 

They could see a huge ship from there, all red and white in the flood lights.  Its nose was raised high, and trucks drove in and out of its mouth on its long metal tongue.  People were standing around on the decks.  Sometimes Martin and Rubber could hear them talking, but it was too far away to know what they were saying.

 

Rubber took his old pipe out of his coat pocket, stuffed it with tobacco, lit it and leaned on the piers rickety railing.  Soon sweet pipe smoke mixed with the smell of salt and sea.

 

Martin watched the ship.  “I wonder where it is going?” he said, mostly to himself.

“Could be anywhere.” Said Rubber, puffing on his pipe.

They both watched the ship, thinking about the exotic, far away places it might be going.

 

“Maybe it is going to Casablanca.” Rubber said after a while.

“Where is Casablanca?” asked Martin, tasting the new word on his tongue.  It tasted warm, like spice.

“Morocco, I think.”

“Morocco…” Martin thought that word tasted like coffee.  Coffee and spice. An exotic place indeed!

 

The two friends stood at the end of the old pier and watched the ship in silence, thinking their own thoughts.  Rubber refilled his pipe and puffed away.

 

In time, the trucks stopped driving in and out of the big ship.  Crewmen shouted orders, and machinery creaked and hummed.  The ship pulled its tongue into its mouth and its nose came down.  There was a deep rumbling as the engines started and, with three loud blasts of its foghorn, the ship left the dock and began turning out to sea.

 

People on the decks waved.  Martin and Rubber waved back, and watched until ship became a little bundle of lights in the darkness.  Then they called Wingdings and walked back along the beach, and home.

 

Back at the house Martin, Rubber and Rubber’s wife Tahoma sat in big old armchairs and drank hot chocolates.  Rubber talked about all the different places he had been to before he became an E Raiser.

 

Later, Martin drifted off to sleep in his bed, and dreamed of coffee and spices and places far, far away…