Boy on the Beach

The girl had made a fine figure in the sand while he was out snorkling.
- An octopus! Do you see that?
I nodded.
A huge octopus reached out for several meters.
- She has made two others down the beach. A turtle and a lizard. She is really good.
He liked that she was good at making figures in the sand.
He also liked that she was as good as a boy in the water and when she sprinted through the burning sand with the long hair like a dragon's tail behind her.
She threw herself into a wave, showed up like a little seal, indeed ready to be looked at.
He digged.
The hole was so big that he could sit comfortably and monitor all activities along the beach.
- I want to reach the groundwater, he said.
- Go ahead. You are going to dig for a long time.
- You don't think I can do it.
One shouldn't tear down a child's belief.
- It will take a while, that's all.
The girl got up from the water and knelt beside the octopus. Her hair was no longer a dragon's tail. It looked like she wore a cape now.
- I want it to be big enough for two.
I was careful with my smile, even with my breath. This fledgling moment was not to be disturbed by some mother. The boy I once met didn't dig. He covered himself with sand. Finally his mother realized that it looked like she was talking to herself about the nice little girl who surely wanted to know his name and everything and cut off the flow.
- Are you ready?
His eager little face popped ud from the hole.
- Am I ready?
He moved to the side.
- There is plenty of room down here.
I shook my head slowly.
- Isn't it better for two children?
- And what about you?
- Me? 
- Of course you are going down in the hole with me. We'll be safe here if the wind decides to blow radiation from Japan to our island. I just need to find something for the roof.
The girl looked up from her octopus. She had refined one of its arms. Her long hair was hair in the wind now. The sun had dried it.
I jumbed in the hole.
- Careful, he said.
- What about the girl?
I couldn't help it. She kept looking at him, so patient, so calm. Though I kept my voice down.
He didn't. He didn't shout either. He spoke naturally.
- She can dig for herself. Do you have any ideas for the roof?
- I'll think about it, I said.
He got up from the hole and ran off to the shore, made a perfect header into the waves.
The girl made a nice header too. She came up and he went down. He came up and she went down.
I sat in the hole and looked at them.
I was absolutely sure I've told him. Radiation would never go that far.