On our last day at the beach the sun came out, and the fog, which for that whole week had draped the shore in a veil of cotton, burned away: we discovered there was an ocean here, after all. It wasn't blue, really, closer to black, but when the waves flattened out across the beach the water was perfectly clear, and full of what looked like minnows and tiny crabs. The shells were just so-so, mostly shards of something that used to be beautiful, like ancient pottery washed up from the ocean floor: they reminded you the world was old, a lot older than we were and would ever be. I'd like to say th