A peaceful day at the beach{RESERVED}

The color of the ocean said it wasn't a good day to swim. The emptyness of the beach said everyone else thought so too. Miharu sighed and was slightly depressed that the beach was empty. Now what was she supposed to do? Miharu sighed again, a little louder to see if anyone would come out if she did. Silence. Waves crashed. Not thinking about anything, Miharu got down on her knees and started digging in the sand. Why she was doing this? Even she didn't know. It was just something to do.

Soph took a step onto the beach. Silence. Even her foot in the sand wasn't making a noise. In Winter, when it was covered in snow, her footsteps crunched. Even in Summer there was noise. But in Spring, there was nothing. Taking another step onto the beach, Soph smiled. It was the way of nature. In Spring, everything was waking up. To enjoy it, one had to be patient. To enjoy it, one had to make their own fun.
For an artist like Soph, this was possible. Some days she worked. Most day, she dreamed. And everyday, she drew. There was always something to do. It wasn't a busy life-style, far from it, but it had a pace. It was steady, like a heart-beat-and it kept Soph alive. That was all she could ask for, really.
Her eyes strayed to another. Someone else was here. But she wasn't wandering around like Soph was, she was bored. And Soph recognised her.
"Miharu!" Soph called to her, just loud enough for the breeze to carry her voice. "Bored? In Spring we have to wait for good things to happen. The best is yet to come."

Miharu blushed. It must've seemed odd that she was digging in the sand. But Soph didn't say anything about it. She smiled and listened to the sound of waves crashing. "I like spring! It is my favorite season! But I can't ever find much to do! On rainy days I splash in puddles, but sunny days I don't know what to do. " She ranted. It was all true, Miharu was always impatient, but she seemed to like being impatient. Impatience gave her something to look forward too. Even if it is a little thing like dinner, or a big thing like summer. Miharu looked at her small hole. It was deep and almost perfectly round. She couldn't possibly fill it back in. She looked at Soph,"Hey, do you want to help me get water from the ocean into this hole here?" She asked, "If you wait a couple days for the water to evaporate, you will have salt, and salt costs money so I was thinking that it would save money." She explained. It must've seemed crazy to Soph, but saving money means that the town has more money for festivals and whatnot.

Soph stopped walking as she reached Miharu. She smiled down at the younger girl. She seemed very happy with the work she had done, and it appeared to make it better that Soph hadn't questioned it-outloud at least. Inside her mind, the question,Why is she doing that?, was floating around, but the thought wasn't something that needed to be said right here in the open. "Innocence. Childlike innocence," Soph said cheerfully, bending down to inspect the hole.
It wasn't very deep, and it was very circular. It was also tucked away in a place where the sea couldn't possible reach it...
Miharu was talking about what she did in Spring. Soph smiled still, her small smile that, like her plait, appeared to be a sort of trade-mark. It was interesting, listening to her talking. It was nice too.
"Sure," Soph replied when she'd been asked if she wanted to fill up the hole with water. "Why not? It is something to do after all!" She chuckled, rolling up her sleeves and jeans and removing her shoes. "It's just so nothing get's wet!" She giggled. "This should be fun!"

Miharu smiled at Soph's willingness to help her. She then rolled up her pants and ran toward the ocean. She was kree deep in the water and the bottoms of her pants were soaked. But that didn't matter much. All she was thinking about if this would actually work and who would want the salt the most. She cupped he hands and dipped them in the water to get a tiny bit of water. She then ran out of the water and got to the hole and released her hands, hoping to hear a small splash. Silence. She looked down at the hole and there was nothing in it. She did the same thing again and it came out with the same results. 'The sand was absorbing all the water!' she thought. She never even realized that all the water fell out when she was running to the hole. She turned to Soph, "I think we need a bucket. The sand keeps on absorbing the water!" She stated laughing.

Soph laughed brightly. "There must be a bucket around here somwhere..." She pondered, looking around the beach thoughtfully.
Kai's snack shack had nothing there. "Kai!" Soph laughed, pretending to be angry. "Why can't you come when we need you? Ha!" She giggled, still looking.
There was nothing under the umbrellas either. Under the bench though...
"Look! There's one! I bet it belongs to Hugh...I'll return it to him later!" Soph darted over towards the bucket, picked it up, thn ran to the sea. Dipping it in the water at an angle, it filled up.
"I hope this works..." Soph smiled, going back to the hole and splashing the water into it.

As she saw the water fill into the hole, Miharu squealed with joy. "It works!" She cheered, "I don't know how you do that! You must be a wizard!" It was already halfway full and with Soph filling it up, it was full in no time. "Good job!" She praised. It was full and the sun was bright in the sky, salt should be made in no time. For the meantime, Miharu sat next to the hole and waited and hummed a simple tune to pass the time. "Hey, how long does it take to make salt?" She asked, getting impatient.

Soph looked up at the sun, blinked, and sat down also.
"How long does it take to make salt? I'm not sure. When I was at school, we learnt about salts in Chemistry, but we used to leave it evaporate over the weekend. Then we used to forget about it. But I'm not quite sure as I've never done it first hand," Soph smiled, shrugging a little.
Bunching up a little, she wrapped her hands around her knees, still smiling. Her plait was coming a little unloose, strands of her dark brown hair falling delicately around her cheeks and chin, but she didn't brush them away. It was nice, just sitting here, in good company, in the Spring, the unexpected sunlight beaming down upon the two. Closing her eyes, Soph sighed in satisfaction. "It really is very pretty here."