Bright Encounter

Have you ever been at the beach on a day when the clouds provide more to watch than even the surf itself? There are days like that . . . days when the clouds appear to run high up some invisible mast as though they were giant sails billowed out in the wind. They paint the blue with white and grey and in the process the hard glare of the beach is masked over with a fine, comforting veil. But every now and then the sun finds a crease in the canyons overhead and spotlights tall dunes and weathered fences, beach grass and, in this instance, a gull. Alternately dipping and soaring, he swept into view . . . a white and dazzling encounter irresistibly pulling attention from painting dunes and sea. Before swerving and flying away, he had become the focal point. But as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone, back into his world of cloud canyons.