Beyond the Rocks

Paige Buller '20

    As my salty, sand-caked, half-polished toes push down against the rocks, and my hands, as carefully as possible, apply a gentle amount of pressure to the barnacles, I look up and see the untouched side of the beach. On warm, radiant days, the water is an opaque aquamarine color. Even on brisk Cape Cod autumn days, when the temperature is nothing close to one for swimming, and the originally vivid blue sky is covered with a thick coat of fog and clouds, the water never fails to emit the most brilliant royal blue. As I inhale, the sharp taste of salt-filled tidal pools fills my lungs. Many are bothered by this pungent smell, but as I’ve learned over the years, if you grow up with some continual factor in your life, such as the smell of the ocean, this component becomes a part of you. It’s your childhood, your memories, the smell that you fell asleep to and woke up to, or a somewhat nostalgic constant. As the ocean scent wafts into me, the seagulls above fly effortlessly in their look-out circles, searching for their next meal. They whoop and wail at each other whether or not they’ve found their latest feast. Making their way from umbrella to umbrella, they eventually find a deserted French fry or chip thoroughly buried in the sand, and repeat their squawking to spread the news of the daily find. Below the gulls’ flights is the quick brushing of the waves against the sand. The waves at the bay are more ripples than waves. There’s no thrashing, no tug-of-war being played within the current, and most definitely no surfing, just the rhythmic sound of the water crawling forward along the sand, and pulling back a couple of pebbles with it. After I’ve made my way over the jetty and onto the unvisited side of the beach, the colors of the vibrant green seaweed, pearly white hermit crab shells, and if you’re lucky enough to see one, the bright pink starfish, are overwhelming. It’s as if the scenery has been turned into an over-filtered image. You’d never imagine the beaches of Cape Cod to be extremely chromatic, but as you’ll notice, it’s the untouched parts that are. The tidal pools display the most diverse ecosystem. Thousands of hermit crabs scuttle around seamlessly, and hidden underneath the sand are the more bulky and clawing crabs. The unnoticed snails lay perched atop their chosen rocks, and beneath them lie the most intensely colored minerals. A couple of miniscule shrimp dart around in pairs, and despite my efforts to catch one, I’ve come to the conclusion that a small shrimp is somehow much faster than me. Beyond the jetty of the beach lies an unscathed little paradise, one that I’d definitely never trade for the most sought-out beach in the world.