Again
The ocean showed its restless side. Waves leapt against the gray sky. The late morning sun lingered behind the curtain of overcast air. A little girl, in her one-piece, ran barefoot on the wet sand and stopped just at the water’s edge. She backed up as the surf licked her toes.
“It’s soooo cold,” she called out. Then she laughed right into the roar of the ocean.
A man wearing swim trunks and an unbuttoned shirt came up behind her. He laughed, too.
“Jump in, Daddy! You said you would.”
He put his toe in and pulled it out.
The little girl laughed and pushed at his big body. “Go!” she demanded. “You have to.”
He looked from the water to the little girl.
“Go!” she said again.
And so he ran at the water and right into a wave. The little girl laughed so hard she held her belly. Her father rode on the wave and let it carry him back to shore.
“Your turn,” he said.
“Really?” she almost whispered up at him.
He scooped her into in his arms.
“Noooo!” she screamed and giggled at the same time. He stepped into the water. “It soooo cold,” she called out as the waves wrapped around them, carrying them up and down.
“I’ve got you,” the father called out.
The little girl clung to his neck. She screamed with joy as they rode the tide.
Back on shore, the father set her down on the wet sand. She spread her arms wide toward the ocean. “Again!” she called out. “I want to go again and again and again!”
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