The Body on the Beach

I took an early morning walk along the beach this morning. The sun was just starting its climb into the sky in the east, making me squint as I headed in that direction. I was heading toward a jetty composed of piled up rocks which ushers boats into the adjoining harbor. Other than a man walking toward me at the very beginning of my walk I was alone on the beach.

So I thought! As I progressed further toward the jetty, squinting into the sun, I perceived a dark form laying in the remotest corner of the beach next to the jetty and right up at the dunes that mark the end of the beach. The sun was right in my eyes, but I caught a good glimpse of the form – it definitely appeared to be a human body!

I won't claim that my heart stood still, but it definitely skipped a beat at that realization. Had the man who passed me done some evil deed or had the previous night's high tide washed up the result of some tragic accident? The thoughts literally cascaded through my head: If this is a body, what will I do? Will I examine it for any signs of life? Shall I just ignore it? Shall I turn around and go for helps since I don't have my cell phone with me? Or shall I just pretend I never saw it?

All the while I was thinking these thoughts my feet kept moving me closer to the lifeless form. I finally decided that I could not ignore it completely, but I decided to confront the problem obliquely. That is, I pretended that I didn't see it yet and headed toward the jetty along the water's edge, well away from the dunes, hoping the body (now clearly identifiable) would get up or just move its head. I kept thinking: Move...move...damn it, move! Lo and behold, just as I was almost abreast of the “corpse,” the point where I would have been forced to make a decision as to what I would do next, it sat up and squinted at me as to say: What are you doing here this early in the morning?

The “corpse” was a young lady dressed in some kind of beach-going attire. I walked past her as if I didn't see her, chagrined at my earlier trepidations, stopped briefly at the jetty and then made my way back down the beach, quite relieved that I was not the discoverer of some unpleasantness. I wondered, though, what the reason was for her being there: Was she the remnant of an all night party at the beach, someone trying to get an early start on a sunburn or just someone like me who enjoys the solitude of the ocean early in the morning.

Lesson learned: Always be prepared for the worst and hope for the best and most importantly – always carry a cell phone.