Thursday, June 12, 2008

marina and the sponges of glass beach

Once upon a time, living sponges roamed the land. They went squishing through the streets of Glass Beach, a small village by the sea, searching for children. When they found them, the sponges made them cry by making the saddest sound anyone had ever heard so that they could drink their tears. It was children in particular that the sponges were after because the saddest sound anyone had ever heard occurs at a sound frequency that is outside of the hearing range of adult ears. Also, the tears of children are much more tasty than those of grown-ups.

One of the victims of the sponges was named Marina. She was a dreamer. There were people who believed she could see the future. One unparticular night – a night that had the same number of stars in the dark sky as all the other nights – a night that smelled of the same salt of the sea – a night that was tickled by the same wind of the wings of the Great Birds of the trees – Marina dreamed that someone threw a rock at her. In the dream, she ducked and the rock missed her, but by the time the rock hit the ground beside her, it had transformed into glass and it shattered on the ground sending shooting-star bits of itself in all directions.
The sponges new exactly where to find Marina because she often fed them well. They climbed the front stairs of the blue house, slipping a little on the sandy wood, and squeezed through the space between the door and the floor.
Someone passed and noticed the clumps of wet sand on the stairs, but that was all. They found marina lying in her bed, looking at the bright moon. They breathed in their abominable way through their hideous pores and the saddest sound anyone had ever heard was unleashed into Marina’s tender ears.

Marina’s tears were so hot that night that when they fell on the sand of the beach, the sand turned to glass. After Marina’s sobbing that night, the beach was full of millions of marbles winking at the moon.
The village children saw the glistening beach through their windows. They thought that they saw fairies dancing in the sand.
The village lovers saw through their windows. They thought that it was phosphorescence from the sea.
The village elders saw through their windows. They thought that the sky and its stars had finally fallen.
The bats saw the beach upside down from where they hung in the trees. They thought all the winking marbles were little fireflies, flashing their last flashes before going to sleep.
Everyone flew to the beach.

The commotion of this thunderous gathering caused vibrations in the earth and air that moved towards the sea. When these vibrations arrived at the island of the Great Birds of the sea, they flapped their great wings making a sweet and salty wind blow towards the shore. This warm and mighty breath of the great wings pushed the waves of the sea, and the waves grew and picked up speed.

When they got to the beach the children, the lovers, the elders, and the bats each chose a marble of the sparkling multitudes. Each looked deeply at the treasure in his or her hand. Looked at the bubble that contained a star. Looked at the galaxy inside the star inside the young and still warm globe of glass. And, interrupting these simultaneous reveries, the tidal wave came and the sea devoured every last one of the star-gazers. Including the bats.

Marina watched from her window, as the children, the lovers, the elders, and the bats disappeared into the sea. It lasted two instants. In the first, the mouth of the sea opened as wide as possible and inhaled in silence. In the second, there was only dark and wet noise. And the sea returned to its easeful yawning. Drops of salty sweet water lightly sprayed the window. The sponges also saw, from their perches on the sill beside Marina, dry with immense thirst.

After the tidal wave, the Glass Beach village was populated by Marina, the sponges and lonely youths. There were no children laughing, no lovers with loudly beating hearts, no elders sharing the old stories, and no bats to eat the mosquitoes. At first, everything was silent. Then, the village was plagued with mosquitoes hungry for the blood of humans, next came the herds of spiders, hungry for mosquitoes. Eventually the spider webs consumed the entire village. They didn’t leave a single survivor.

One day many many many years later, a little girl with a mind full of magic, walked along a shore many many many miles from Glass Beach. She found, in the sand, among the sea-dull stones and broken shells, a marble. She picked it up and looked at the universe inside, clouded by time, but filled with wonder.

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