text: He had not meant it to be this way. He adjusted his makeshift pillow, taking care to not get any sand onto the mattress he was sitting on. After much shuffling, he rested his head again, still uncomfortable. He wrinkled his toes in the cold sand, feeling the soft particles slide through the gaps and finding refuge under the nails. A fact he read the other day - something about the human finger being able to feel the difference between a car and a house if it were as big as the Earth. A sharp northerly wind cut across his face. Quickly, he fixed his hair. A futile effort, of course, but in such grey weather, it seems that even fixing one's hair can be addictive. One of the girls made a start to get up now. She didn't fix her hair. It was flowing behind her like the Star-Spangled Banner flying on Iwo Jima, feeding on the wind, growing curls as she manoeuvred her body into a kneeling position. Her slender figure blocked out much of the sky, and it was difficult for him to look away. He got up suddenly. He tried to find something to justify his movement and picked up a frisbee disc. Holding the prop, he looked up and smiled at the girl. Cue line. "Wanna play?" He asked with a shine in his voice. "Sure," she replied, smiling a brilliant smile without looking at him. She had a tendency to milk every drop of each vowel, collecting it all in a bucket and dumping it on the other side of the conversation with a splash. They found a perfect space on the beach and the dance began. As they threw the disc back and forth, he was acutely aware of the rhythm of everything: his swinging arms, her shapely legs, and the disc - gliding and crashing. He scoured anxiously for the next cue, running his mind through every crease and ridge, clawing through the void for something that might anchor him, but he found nothing. It was all too smooth, too flat, too even to be anything. The set piece fell, the audience gasped, and the fourth wall was broken. He jumped for the disc and caught it with one hand. The waves were getting closer. As he threw the disc he saw her fixing her hair. He had not meant it to be this way.