8.12.20

“Look!” he cries out: “There is something in the wave over there!” She looks up to see her best friend pointing at something in the water. It reflects the light in a different way then the surface of the waves that crashs into the shore. She gets up to inspect the floating thing closer: “It’s a message in a bottle I think,” she says and together the two already thrash into the ocean, drops of water splashing in every direction as they race in the knee-high water to arrive first at the shimmering glass bottle. The boy is first and plucks it out of the water. He holds it up to inspect its content closer in the sunlight. “Must be a message from a secret island”, he declares. The girl frowns in concentration at the brown paper rolled up inside: “Maybe it is a message from a mermaid to her human lover,” she concludes: “If I am right, you will do my chores tomorrow.” – “And if I am right,” he thinks out loud: “You will cover for me tomorrow.” – “Deal!” They make their way back to the beach practically buzzing with excitement.

Carefully they break the wax seal and remove the cork with her pocket knife. But when they unroll the weathered paper, they neither find lines written by a mermaid nor by a lonely inhabit of an island. It’s a drawing and a pretty odd one at that: It shows small houses but they are all covered in a white layer. Even the stars look different and parts of the sky shimmer in a weird violet colour. It is a beautiful picture and very detailed. The artist must be very creative, because it looks like a magical kingdom. Both of the kids stare at the picture for quite a while before they look at each other with wide eyes. “Let’s go home and show this to my baba.” The girl decides. They collect their wooden surfboards and store them conscientious in a crevice a little further up the sand trail. “Maybe the painter didn’t have any more colours so he used white instead of brown and green,” the girl says as both of them try to make sense of what they discovered. They proceed in silence, both of them pondering about kingdoms in the clouds and artists who paint the sky in glowing colours.