The Key

The Key: Three

                           Three

"Mummy, why is the sky blue? And not purple or pink?" I asked, seated comfortably in my booster seat as we drove along. My gaze was on the bright blue sky, which was clear of any clouds on this magnificent day.

In the front seat, my mother chuckled, and turned her gaze to me smiling as she finished parking the car in the empty parking lot. "The sky is blue because it wants to be blue, hunny." She smiled at me with her dark brown eyes, before turning back and sticking her hair up. Slipping her sunglasses on her head, she grabbed a hat and towel and exited the car, coming around to the door closest to me in the back.

She swung it open and helped to unbuckle me from my seat, as I tried not to squirm about for her. I was dressed in my favourite, floral one piece swim suit, with my pink and purple striped rash shirt over the top. Mum placed a small, white hat on my head, tucking my hair behind my ears as she lifted me up and out of the car. She gently nudged the door with her hip, letting it shut, and with her spare hand she locked the car, stuffing the keys into her beach bag.

"The water!" I exclaimed, as we neared closer to the beach, Mum tip toeing through the hot sand to get there. This was our beach. Only the two of us would ever come to it, for some reason no one else had discovered it. Luckily, it was a five minute drive from our house, so it was a nice easy trip to get to paradise. 

When we were only five metres from the sparkling ocean water, Mum put me down and turned me to her, looking me straight in the eyes. "Remember not to go out past your shoulders, okay? Or a wave will wipe you out."

I nodded, as much as I wanted to go deeper so that I could swim around more, I didn't like the idea of getting wiped out. Whenever the salt water would get in my eyes, it would sting so much that I'd cry, and I didn't want to have to go through it again. She pat me on the back as I turned around. "Now, go crazy," she laughed. I sprinted out to the water, running as fast as my little legs could carry me, tripping in the sand once or twice as I went. Behind me, I could hear my mother laughing, but I didn't care. Nothing was going to stand in between me and getting to the water.

Diving in, I let the cool water cover my body and cool me, as I kept my head above water and paddled around a bit. I waded into the shallow bit some more until I was standing with my shoulders just above the water. The sand in between my toes felt nice, as I bobbed around in the water, staring at Mum as she slowly came closer, beaming down at me. When she entered the water, she scooped me up and started playing with me, tossing me around and dipping me into the water. I giggled continuously, trying to release her grip on me.

"I want to build a sand castle now!" I exclaimed, paddling away from my mother until I was fully on the sand. I turned around to see her bobbing up and down, smiling at me.

"Okay. You build the most magnificent sand castle you can build," she challenged.

Grinning, I turned around and collapsed into the sand, digging and piling up sand as fast and as well as I possibly could. I shaped and molded the sand, collected feathers and shells to put on my castle, and beamed down at my work when I was finally finished. To me, it was the most amazing sand castle I had ever made and I felt very proud of it.

As I turned back around, I scanned the water for Mum, ready to show her my sand castle, surprised to see that she was nowhere in sight.

"Mummy?" I shouted. "Where are you?"

After about two minutes of no reply, the smile disappeared from my face, replaced with a frown. I wandered up and down the beach, continuously shouting out her name, getting more worried by the minute. Deciding to walk down to the docks and see if she'd gone down there, I walked along the planks and to the very edge, scanning the bay. I couldn't see anyone or anything out there, save a big cruise ship that happened to be passing by at that moment.