The pup and I sit to take a rest. I put the chunk of salt and the lantern on
the beach at my feet. A man walks by and
say, “What a fabulous idea.” He begins
walking down the beach and driving in rose gold hooked poles and small rose
gold pedestals. They extend to the
horizon in organic clumps. He walks back
toward me and encourages me to get a move on, “it has to be completed by
sundown.”
I stand up, dust the sand off my butt. The dog looks up at me quizzically. I shrug and say, “You know as much as I do,
Shorty.” But I go down the beach with
the man where we begin hanging rose-colored lanterns on the poles and setting
bodacious chunks of Himalayan salt onto the pedestals. The ones I have been carrying are the last to
be installed. “Hurry. Hurry.
It’s almost time,” he says as he places my items.
We turn together, the man, the pup and me just in time to
see the sun fall out of the sky and night come.
“Wait for it,” he tells me. And just
as the sky loses all of its day, the lanterns light up and the salt crystals
begin to hum. I am transported.
We walk back in the glow of the lanterns. “Such a great idea you had,” he tells
me. “Next time think bigger,” he says
and walks off.
