Beached
January 7th, 2021
Starring: Tourist (25-40), Local (55-75)
A small coastal town. Overcast, windy. A dirt road, which dead ends into a weathered wooden fence, overlooking a rocky, sandy beach. A dirty red pickup truck pulls up. Tourist hops out, holding an analog film camera. Local (and owner of the BnB Tourist is staying at) turns off the car and gets out behind Tourist, looking down at the beach.
LOCAL
The cove.
TOURIST
Beautiful. Do you come often?
LOCAL
Only to show visitors. All different, being from here.
TOURIST
I’ll bet.
Were you around? When the pilot whales washed up?
…
LOCAL
I was.
TOURIST
Sorry if it’s a bother—
LOCAL
No, it’s ok.
I was pretty young. Ten or eleven. But I was here.
TOURIST
You came down?
LOCAL
The whole town did. Everything stopped for weeks. Then months of news crews, photographers, scavengers.
TOURIST
Is it true? What they said about the sand?
LOCAL
You couldn’t see an inch. It was an ocean of wet black skin. There were places where they were in stacks, overflowing up the sides.
TOURIST
Hard to fathom.
LOCAL
Harder to forget. The sight, the smell, the smell after.
TOURIST
What was it?
LOCAL
Death on death on death on death. Because it was.
Almost impressive. The solidarity of thousands of organisms to do the exact same thing. Rare to see in the world.
TOURIST
What about you? The town?
LOCAL
What about us?
TOURIST
Deciding not to launch a rescue effort. To watch as they all suffocated. Is that not solidarity?
LOCAL
Sure it is. That was impressive too.
TOURIST
The negligence?
LOCAL
The restraint to saving. To not interfere with what nature wanted to do. Not easy.
TOURIST
You seem to have it thought through.
LOCAL
Yeah, well, get asked enough times, you’ll find an answer.
…
Sorry if it’s a downer. Maybe you’re asking the wrong person.
TOURIST
Don’t apologize. You’re probably the right one.
…
LOCAL
You writing a book, or something?
TOURIST
No. Just curious.
LOCAL
What about?
TOURIST
Humans. Life.
LOCAL
Hm.
That must be nice.
…
Do you mind if we head back in a sec? I don’t want the front desk unmanned for too long.
TOURIST
No, sure. Ready when you are.
Local nods in appreciation and starts the car. Tourist looks down at the beach once more, snaps a photo on the camera, then climbs into the passenger’s seat. It pulls away down the road, leaving a long dust trail.