Chapter 1: Just Another Day at the Beach

Even before she opens her eyes Ayden can hear voices.  They are all around her.  She can feel the fine wet granules of sand against her cheek and lips; the gentle surf washing against her ankles. 

The shrill voice of a nasally woman asks, “Is she alive?”

Gingerly, Ayden opens her eyes and tries to push up on one hand, but just rolling her aching body over takes all the effort she can muster.  She moans and closes her eyes against the brilliant sun threatening to blind her.

The voice of a small boy very near her face says, “Look mommy she moved and her eyes are opening.”  She feels the sensation of someone running a finger slowly down her arm, the fingernail gently skimming the surface of her skin, and as her eyes flutter open she sees a small boy put the finger in his mouth, eagerly licking at the nail bed, before making a face and trying to spit out the foul flavor which must be from the baby oil she put on before coming to the beach.

The horrified mother gasps and grabs the small boy by the arm pulling him away from the crowd, indignantly scolding him, “Mason!  You cannot just go around licking people that you do not know!”  Trailing off as she storms up the beach with her son in tow Ayden can hear her complain, “Someone really should do something about these girls on the beach”

An elderly woman to her right chastises, “Wyatt, do something about this.”

Suddenly there are hands lifting her into a sitting position.  Then comes the stinging slap to her face.  The elderly man, Wyatt, has just slapped her soundly, and it is enough to bring her into a full upright position, her eyes wide open in shock and he is standing over her looking down at her, with concern, asking, “Are you alright?”

Ayden looks up at him, puzzled, answering, “I think so.” Raising her hand to rub the sore cheek she wonders if it has left a mark.

The elderly woman is smoothing Ayden’s ponytail back away from her face and inquiring, “Did you do this on purpose because you were abandoned or have you just arrived?  Where do you live?  Are you owned?”

Ayden’s lips form the question, “Owned?” but she is overwhelmed by the onslaught of questions and sensations.  No sounds come out of her mouth.

Hands are pulling her to her feet and brushing away the loose bits of white sand from her back and thighs.  She shakes her head to clear her thoughts as she sweeps away the sand from her hands, “No, no, I just slipped and I am staying…” but as she raises her hand to point in the direction of the beach house she notices the shops look different and the record store is not there.  On this corner stands an old style, corner market with fruit displayed in boxes lining the front of the store.  Confused she stammers, “I… I… um,” looking up and down the beach front for something familiar.  Ayden struggles to figure out how far she is from the beach house and the crowd begins to disperse, many of them shaking their heads, some looking back at her with pity in their eyes but most focusing their gaze on their feet as they trundle through the deep sand back to their own activities.  “Wait!” she frantically calls out to them but not even the elderly couple will look back to help.

Searching for any marker along the shore that looks familiar she sees a jogger coming towards her, but before she can utter a word he alters his path and jogs behind her.  As he races past he slaps her firmly on the derrière, so hard he nearly knocks her over again.  She stumbles forward and instinctively grabs her behind and rubs the burning sensation.  She, incredulously, looks toward the man who is still jogging down the beach but is now running backwards smiling and shaking his finger at her.  She is not sure why but she blushes and returns his infectious smile.  Ayden can only shake her head in disbelief.

To her left is a group of young men, about her age, laughing loudly and passing a football back and forth.  Still feeling a little wobbly she approaches them and calls out quietly, “Excuse me, can you help me?”

The man with the ball plants it firmly on his left hip holding it casually in place with his wrist as he strides over to her, flashing a broad toothy grin.  He is tall and tanned, with dark hair and eyes the color of dark chocolate.  It is obvious he has spent some time on the beach.  She had not noticed how attractive he was until he smiled at her.  The muscles of his arms are not the sort you see on men who spend too much time worrying about how they look, but they are the kind a man who is very athletic would have.  Her eyes are drawn to the strong muscles of his chest.  There is just a touch of dark hair in the center and a matching bit just below his belly as it slides down into his bathing suit between the prominent ‘V’ of his hipbones.  His three friends approach behind him.  They are equally athletically built, with varying hair and eye color, but each one as attractive as the man with the football.  Her breath catches in her throat as they approach.  She blushes and drops her eyes to their feet as she sees she has been caught admiring their physiques.  The man with the football reaches her first and in a deep voice says, “Sure, what kind of help do you need?” simultaneously his free hand comes up and softly cups the underside of her breast.

Ayden’s hand instinctively jerks up to push it away, but as she takes a step back she loses her balance in the soft sand and lands in the waiting arms of the tallest of the quartette.  He is thin, with dark eyes, and his ebony skin glistens with sweat.  Ayden’s breath catches in her throat.  She had not noticed him circling around behind her.  He stands her up and with her back still held tightly against his strong chest he whispers in her ear, “Naughty, naughty, you little spitfire and what are you doing down here all alone?”  He deftly spins Ayden away, bends her at her middle, quickly pinning her torso in the crook of his arm holding her firmly in place against his waist.  She feels her feet kicked apart and three swift ‘whacks’ land hard on her bottom.  The first one makes her cry out in surprise, it lands hard and his large hand, nearly covers both sides in one strike.  The second one comes before she can catch her breath as she tries to squirm away from it so it lands on one side sending a sharp sting followed by a warm heat that spreads slowly over the surface of her skin.  It is now that she raises her face to the crowd realizing that all eyes on the beach are turned towards her.  Many of the men have stopped building sand castles with their children and are standing with their arms crossed nodding their approval at the young men scolding her now.  The women are smiling and trying to distract the younger of the children away from the scene at the shore.  The third strike is the hardest of all and her knees buckle as tears form in the corners of her eyes.  Ayden is panting as she is righted, her tormenter still holding her in place with a big strong hand on each of her upper arms as he slowly whispers in her ear, “What do you say to the nice man?”

Ayden’s mouth gapes open, dumbfounded.  Her mind is racing trying to make sense of what is happening to her and where she is.  Her mouth pops open and closes so that she looks like one of the guppies in the pet shop that stood on Main Street, of her hometown when she was a young girl.

The tall dark haired man just laughs and waves off the man holding Ayden captive, “Minkah, it’s okay.  Don’t worry about it.  We are just here to have a little fun.  Hell, we aren’t even in the right part of the beach for this.”

Her tormenter, Minkah, relaxes his hold on her arms and turns her around to face him.  With his thumb he gently reaches up and swipes away a tear from her cheek and asks quietly “Are you okay now?  Feel better?”

Ayden can do nothing but bob her head forward slightly, sniffling at the tears running down her face.  She is not sure if the tears are from the sting of the spankings or the surprise and having every eye she her humiliation.

Minkah cocks his head to one side and brings his hand up to cup his ear saying, “What?  I did not hear that.”

Ayden is able to gulp out a squeaky, “Yes.”

Minkah does not let go of his grip, in fact, it tightens slightly as he corrects her drawing out a slow exaggerated, “Sir….”

Ayden’s mouth falls open in shock and her eyes are as wide open as a child who has just had their lollipop ripped from their hand.  In barely more than a whisper she manages to choke out, “Yes, Sir?” even if through slightly gritted teeth.

Minkah’s face lights up in a bright beaming smile as he pats her on the bottom releasing her arms saying, “See that is a good little spitfire.”  The tall dark haired man and his two friends have already gone back to their patch on the sand and Minkah follows behind them. 

As Ayden looks along the beach all faces are on her.  “Excuse me.  Could someone please…” but before she can finish her sentence they have all gone back to what they were doing before and are too preoccupied to offer her any assistance.

Unsure of where she is and completely baffled by the behavior of the people on the sand she turns to search for her towel and bag, but not before looking over her shoulder to be sure the four men are focused on their football game and that she is heading away from them.  Ayden is marveling at that graceful way the sun dances off Minkah‘s dark skin.  He catches her gaze and gives her a wink; a gleaming smile spreading across his face.  She quickly turns her eyes forward feeling the blush rising in her cheeks.  Ayden raises a hand and touches her cheeks feeling the heat and wipes away the wetness of the remaining tears wishing she did not blush so easily.  She then feels the heat radiating through her bottom and thinks those cheeks must have a bright pink blush, as well, and rubs at the heat, tugging to reposition her bikini into place as she searches for her towel.  The beach stretches on as far as she can see.

Off in the distance she can make out the light blue, sloped-roof of a lifeguard tower and begins working her way towards it.  It is a simple wooden structure with windows on three sides, a door in the front, with a ramp leading up to it.  There is a deck that runs along the side facing the shore, where the life guard can stand under the over-hang that provides a little shade during the heat of the day.  The entire building is supported by wooden pillars which keep it up off the ground so the lifeguard can see out over the crowds.  It all looks about as cliché as her bathroom back at the beach house, except at the base of the tower, where the four pillars support the small room, there is iron meshing on all four sides and a small opening where a metal gate hangs askew from one hinge.  Around the outside of the tower are small wooden posts that stand about as tall as her waist.  The posts surround the life guard tower and stand about 1 meter apart from each other and are about 1 meter from the base of the light blue tower so that they form a little square of twenty-one posts.  Each post is topped with a black iron ring and there is a man using a heavy grinder on some of the rings that appear to have begun to rust.  As Ayden approaches he stops his work and grins up at her revealing teeth that are missing or yellowing from years of neglect.  She takes a step back, but when he chuckles and returns to his work she presses forward to the young man positioned on the front deck of the tower.  At the base of the ramp leading up to the deck she calls out to the life guard who looks down at her and smiles as he turns and goes back inside the small room.  Hesitantly, she climbs the ramp calling out, “Hello?” hoping to draw the lifeguard’s attention.  Reaching the top she peers through the doorway and he is sitting on a small stool at a table that is stacked with first aid equipment.  Ayden smiles and breathes a sigh of relief and quietly asks, “Excuse me but could you please help me.  I seem to be lost.”

The life guard smiles and motions for her to come in.  Once inside there is barely enough room for the two of them.  He looks up at her and says, “Won’t your please have a seat?”  Ayden quickly looks around but the lifeguard is sitting on the only seat in the room.  He leans forward, with one hand on his right knee and on the left knee he has his elbow propped up with his palm facing up slowly extending out in her direction.  She is still looking for a seat, scanning the cluttered room, from her right where the orange lifebuoy hangs on a nail and to the left where a small refrigerator sits humming in the corner.  When she feels his fingertips press softly against her knees she is startled.  She looks down at his hand and tries to back up, but her back is against the open door, but as she does her legs open slightly allowing his hand to gently slide between her knees.  Her mouth falls open in silent protest as she looks from the hand up into the man’s face.  His gentle blue eyes are looking up sideways at her waiting.  He clears his throat and impatiently asks, “Well?”

Quickly looking around the room again Ayden chuckles softly out of nervousness and says quietly, “I do not see a chair.”

“I have offered you my hand.  Now please bend your knees outward and kindly have a seat like a polite young lady would when a seat is offered to her,” he softly scolds her.  Whether it is the heat of the day, nearly drowning, or the strange way that people are behaving she finds herself slowly bending her knees and lowering herself down just as she has been asked to do.  Once she is awkwardly balanced on his outstretched hand, just the thin layer of her bikini between his warm flesh and the moisture that is barely hidden away in the folds of her own he leans close to her face, still smiling and asks, “What is it you need help with again?”

Flustered and blushing Ayden stumbles over her words quickly trying to get her story out.  Trying to explain that she had nearly drown and she was lost and cannot find her way back to her summer bungalow, but her words just fall out in a frantic jumble.  The life guard just smiles at her, obviously amused.  Looking her directly in the eye, holding her gaze as his outstretched hand begins to slowly close over her mons he brings his other hand up to cover her mouth and he lets out a deep low, “Shhh.”  Immediately, she stops talking and takes in a deep breath of air, letting it out slowly, finally feeling her body relax as a tingling begins to radiate up from her belly.  She knows that she should not, but his strong hand feels good against her body and she does not dare move, but instinctively kisses the hand that is still holding her silent.  Gradually, the hand that is grasping her releases and the lifeguard tells her to stand.  She silently obeys his command.  He stands up, as she does, and smiles down at her, “Now then, we are closed today as you can see from the repairs going on outside,” there is a quick slap on her rear as he continues, “so now off with you naughty girl.”  Bewildered she slowly inches back down the ramp looking over her shoulder as the lifeguard shoos her away with the back of his downturned, open fingertips that were, only a few moments ago wrapped so snuggly around her.

Still struggling to make sense of all that has happened; Ayden drops to her knees grabbing two full handfuls of sand.  It is only then that she notices the beach is no longer dark and pebbly but a beautiful silky soft light sand beach.  Tears begin to well up in her eyes and pour down her cheeks.  She is lost.  She needs help and everyone is acting very strange.  She looks around searching the sand for some familiar landmark, something that will point her in the right direction.  When her stomach suddenly rumbles, she instantly brings one hand up to stop the noise and uses the other hand to shade her eyes from the sun as she searches the sky and guesses it is getting late in the afternoon, but she is not prepared to trust any of her senses, at least not yet.  Ayden thinks of the fruit waiting for her in her bag and wishes she had eaten something before getting into the water this morning.  She wonders just how long she was in the water.  The heat of the day is radiating down from her scalp and she knows she cannot go much further; her mouth is feeling dry and she can still taste the salt water she must have swallowed.  She scans the beach trying to determine which way to go, she looks back to where the elderly couple, the families, and the young men were gathered on the beach and decides not to go back that way.  Ayden looks longingly at the lifeguard tower she just left.  She wonders at the captivating guard and the enthralling effect he had on her.  She knows she cannot return there for help, but does not know where to turn.  Further up the beach she can see a pier with what looks like a considerable amount of activity.  She stands resolute, brushes the sand from her legs and hands, and begins the long trudge down the beach towards the pier.