Summer Reading IV

"Gilt clouds tumble like dwarfs along the horizon. Ahead of us sandpipers evade the surf and then, as the water retreats and the glossy sand goes matte, scuttle back to peck for plankton. The next wave - and our flying feet - drives them away again on stiff little legs and white-edged wings. In a shallow tide-pool, a very high wave has left behind billows of dirty foam. Evaporating and contracting, the foam shifts soundlessly in its gutter; in a few moments it will vanish. Bubbles topping one shred of foam glower red and green in the late afternoon sunlight and then break, one after another, like small eyes winking shut.
"Let's walk," the woman shouts.

Edmund White, Forgetting Elena