The Boy sat in the middle of an infinite sandy beach, chin resting on his knees, watching the same wave arrive and retreat, arrive and retreat…
He was ALONE with nothing, absolutely nothing to do…
He picked up a fistful of wet sand and packed it, the way he always did. It was too small, so he picked another. And another. His hands worked furiously, rounding and pressing until a great golden sphere sat before him. “Ghad…” he uttered, it was just a big ball of yellow sand, but somehow it felt important, like something was missing.
He started collecting everything washed ashore by the ancient water and rolled them into Seven smaller balls:
The First was all grey pebbles,
The Second a ball of cloud-white shells.
The Third was a rust-red cluster made of dried crab,
The Fourth a giant with many seaweed stripes.
The Fifth was a pale beauty padded with sea foam,
The Sixth was threaded with translucent jellyfish skin,
And the Seventh was made of aquamarine shells.
The Boy arranged them in a curved line stretching away from the big ball of yellow sand. “Ghad…” This too felt important, but something was missing.
Again.
The Boy looked around, there were so many things left behind - white shells, blue shells, pebbles, seagrass, starfish and crab - so he pressed it all together into a new ball. After he finished, the Boy smiled. He had made many, many balls before but this one, this messy, overcrowded tiny ball, was his favorite. He kissed it and placed it between the cloud-white shell ball and the rust-red cluster.
WAIT! Was the new ball slightly twitching? Was it... ALIVE?!
The Boy looked at it closely. “GHAD!” he marveled at his Creation. Yes, this ball made of everything that was constantly moving and changing was ALIVE!
And from that moment on, the Boy was never bored again.