We went to the beach again today. It was beautiful. The sun played against the water so that, as it rippled, it looked like the hide of a creature alive, golden and encrusted with jewels. The sand was hot and thick, like quicksand, and at low tide water gathered into hollows created by the sand, dotted with black crab holes and warmed by the sun. Windsurfers gathered around the sandbar and their sails whipped in the wind like brightly colored flags, blue, crimson, and orange, and the wild brush rustled as downtown in the far distance was shrouded in rain. As we were walking to where the water turns cold and black and drops into the sea we spotted a giant blue crab, the size of two hands, lurking in the shallows. It gnashed its claws and dug into the sand to disguise itself. We peered at it for a time until it was lost beneath the rolling water and the brightness of the sun's reflection, like crystals scattered. Farther down we saw a large starfish, scarlet with green knobs, and we lifted it out of the water to see its pale underbelly and small round suckers. We set it back gently, and the sky began now to darken with clouds. We marched single file back through the seaweed and then to shore, but as we were in the seaweed thicket I saw a stingray, just a small one the color of desert sand, swimming swiftly back out to sea. Its stinger was long and waved behind it like a stiff dog's tail. As we were driving home the storm began.