Seashells and Foam

The waves crashed against the shore loudly, Estella sat, her feet dipped in the sand as she stared out into the blank ocean, the entire beach glowing a blue hue as she waited for the sun to rise, she wrapped her arms around her knees curling further into a ball and trying her hardest to hide inside her sweater, it was cold as it always was during the night, but it usually cleared up by the time the sun came out so she wasn't too bothered. She stared out onto the dark, blank water, watching as the waves rocked and crashed, rising and falling, and pushing and pulling. 

She had woken up early and wanted to clear her head hence why she was sitting at the dark beach in the early hour of the AMs, shivering as she reminisced on her life and the simplicity of it, she welcomed the peace and calm that she had only recently began receiving from the world since she had left her family home and the city in favour of the seaside, she loved it here, but she couldn't help but feel hopeless on days, times spent wondering if she had made the right choice, even now it was all she could think about as a peaceful morning at the beach was no exception to her feelings at all, she could feel sane with the hope that she could make it alright on her own, and that she had been alright on her own so far, even after going no contact with her family members.

Her eyelashes flutter as the sun starts to come out, painting the sky a light blue, orange, and pink. Her pupils constrict as she stares straight at the large star. Brushing her legs off, she begins to stand up. Today was going to be a busy day, and it would do her no good to sulk and pout. She was a strong, independent woman who had a job to do, and she would make sure she remained with that mentality throughout the day. 

Sunday morning, like every other Sunday in Malibu, was blistering hot, the heat causing others to sweat, tourists wiping sweat off their brows as they paraded around the beach, grainy sand and powder covering their bodies as they played with their families or conversed with friends along the sand. 

A few meters away from all of the colourful sand buckets and towels further away from the loud crowds and closer to the shore, brightly coloured swimsuits and patterned covers, Estella was crouched down behind the mounds of sand that had slight patches of dried greenish brown weeds growing out of it, the sand was covered in dark green seaweed, as she combed through the shore, pushing away seaweed and rocks so that she could see, she was searching for seashells, she packed up a few, flat ones, round ones, curved and pointed shells, she placed a conch shaped shell towards her ear in a childish motion to ‘listen to the ocean’, giggling to herself as she did so, before placing it in her bag, she continued to search through the sand, being mindful of sharp rocks and metals, her gloves protecting her against shards of green tinted glass from smashed bottles.

She did this often on the weekends as part of her job, well her self-employment, making jewellery and trinkets and selling them as a beach vendor, it had been stressful at first, she had wanted to quit because of the lack of response, but she had slowly over the past few months become attached to her job, as more people started becoming invested she had set up an online shop, overall everything was going well, gone was her mood from earlier in the day now that she had the time in the sun and bag filled with shells.

Standing up, she flung her tote bag (the one that she used for collecting) over her shoulder and began to walk back towards her cabin, which was a little further down the path after the beach. She walked slowly taking in the views of people playing, throwing beach balls at each other and just having a good time and smiled to herself, her feet sinking into the sand as she walked, as much as she loved the beach, there was nothing worse than walking back from it, when her whole body would feel so much heavier than it had been before. Now Estella knew that she was a clumsy person, although, that was usually when she was rushing through things and not paying attention to where she was going, that's why, when she found herself on the ground with a face and mouth full of sand, she was a little surprised, spitting out some dry grains and groaning, she pulled herself up and looked down to see what had made contact with her foot, picking up the slightly sharp object that had given her a pain she would remember for days in her foot, she gazed at it, the rough texture, from what she could make out it was a seashell… It had the same smooth yet crumbly and flaky feel to it, the same ridges and bumps that gave her the familiar sickly reminder of snails and their oh-so-iconic traveling homes, her finger traced the ridges, or at least she tried to, the shell was encrusted in muck and dried sand, after some careful consideration she placed it in her bag, straightening out her left sandals that had flipped onto her ankle when she fell and finally, finally made her way home.

Once she arrived at her house, she placed the bag next to her kitchen sink after locking her door and slipping her shoes off, turning the tap on and blocking the sink, filling it up with hot soapy water, slow stripes of steam floating out of the sink, the sound of running water in the air. She then tipped her bag over and watched as ‘ splash’ ‘splash’ ‘splash’, all of the shells fell in, causing some of the water to hit her. She recoiled a little, grimacing slightly, brushing it off, she grabbed her small washing brush and gloves, and began to scrub away the dried sand.

After she was done with most of the shells she felt her hand running through the once clear and slightly soapy water, which was now a murky brown color, even the white bubbles and froth of soap had turned a light brown color, her hand made contact with the last shell, she hummed to herself “Okay, just one more,” she smiled slightly pulling it out, it turned out to be the one she had tripped over earlier, she started cleaning it carefully, it was practically buried in grime, sand and muck, layers which barely even came off as she continued to scrub at it. 

It was tougher than she had expected for the dirt to come off, and she had ended up spending a good 10 minutes scrubbing it clean, but as she began to clean it she noticed that it had a chocolate bronze and cream color, the colors swirling together and fading into wisp-like streaks in the center, the side of the palm-sized shell was bronze as well, but it was covered in ridges, not like the ones all across the shell, the tip of it had a point, a rather sharp looking point, it was a hair clip, her eyebrows raised in surprise as she examined it, turning it around in her fingers, she placed it on the side of her sink to drain the water and focused on her next task. After going diving the day before she already had a pile of oysters in a netted bag in the garden, she wiped her hands on some paper towels and sighed, making her way into the garden to start collecting some pearls. 

After an hour of breaking into the oysters she had collected, and then cleaning the pearls, she had eventually managed to finish all of the tasks she had set for the day, including household chores like cleaning, cooking, and laundry, by the time she had a minute to look out the window she had realized that the sun had gone down and it was almost 9 pm, the whole day had gone past with the blink of an eye, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it as it seemed like time was moving faster and faster as the years went on, she shook her head and began making her way up the carpeted staircase that lead to the upper floor of her house, deciding to first go to the bathroom to prepare herself for bed.

Pushing the bathroom door open she switched on the lights, they flicked slightly the bulb sparking to life, her bathroom wasn't exactly the biggest, the room was quite small, some may even call it cramped, she barely had enough room to climb out of the shower unless she kept the door shut, and her door would barely even shut on a good day without her slamming her foot into it, removing her yellow hoodie she heard a quiet thump as an object fell to the floor, she leaned down to pick it up and notice that it was the hair clip from earlier, smiling softly she placed it in her hair and glanced into her mirror, taking in her appearance. Seafoam green eyes stared back at her as she brushed her short blonde hair back with her hand pinning the side of it down with the clip, she examined her roots, the hair dye was slowly fading a sign indicating that she needed to get it redone, but all of that didn't matter as she stared at the way the clip suited her, at first she had thought about maybe selling it on her store as a prized item but now looking into the mirror she slowly became more and more enamoured with the hair clip.