And then it was all dust..............

The Love-In-Tokyo band of hers was his current object of interest.
“Ah! It hurts Abiram, Don’t pull it!” cried Shwetha papa
“Mummy! Abiram is pulling mice hair mummy”
“Papa mine not mice. What did you do anyways?”
“Nothing, mummy, Abi is bad boy. I am not going to speak to him. Ka ka katti”
“Papa get ready, we have to go to the beach before the sun sets! Auntie, Uncle are waiting. Abi kanna you too wear your shoes fast.”
She wore the pink frock declaring proudly to the world, “I hate boys”. He wore his best white shirt and drawers so loose, he had difficulties holding onto them despite the belt. She was in katti mood and that was not fun. Of course he can’t ask her sorry but then whom will he play with in the beach. These girls are so fussy, he thought but nevertheless bit his 8 year old ego, threw it aside, and asked her a quick sorry. Before she could see his face redden because of having done this unmentionable act he ran down the stairs.
She came all bright and cheerful with her pink frock and sat down to wear her pink shoes.
Pink, so girlie a colour, he thought. I hate girls, and this will be the last time I will play with them he promised himself.
They sat in the car, and papa was taken from one set of firm hands and passed on to the other till finally she sat next to driver uncle, and that too next to the window. He was sitting uncomfortably between the gear and her. Actually this way he was closer to driver uncle but how did that matter when he didn’t get the window seat. He wished driver uncle would let him play with the gear. He decided he will be driver one day and keep holding the gear.
“Mummy! Mummy! Will you get me ice cream in beach” he asked
“Yes kanna, now you behave like a good boy. Look at papa how good she is” Amma replied
“Three cheers to beach. Hip Hip Hurray!”, they screamed in unison.
They got down and before any of the adults accompanying them could catch them they ran towards the beach, holding hands and running to race against the winds, like it was running race competition in school. They stopped to catch some breath but she needed that more than him. He wanted to tug at the Love-In-Tokyo band but thought he will do that after they finish playing.
All the elders were walking slowly. Papa’s Appa would meet them here from work and his Appa was already playing with his camera. He wanted to take shots of the impending sunset. It looked glorious, the beach, basking in that sweet sunshine, exuding just the right amount of warmth that felt like the beach was just embracing them in a tight warm bear hug.
They sad down near the very edge of the beach, she on her haunches, her band glowing in the receding sunlight and he with his legs spread around a circle he had just drawn on the mud, sand he quickly corrected himself. He was class monitor this year and had to impress his class with his excellent moral speeches, which he was asked to give once a week. He decided to talk about “Honesty is the best policy” this week as he had found that in a recent edition of Wisdom magazine. He will have to copy it down and memorize it. What would be she be thinking of now, he thought. What dress to make for her doll, I suppose and he laughed to himself.
“Come Abi, we will make the hill fast” she shouted bringing him back from his reverie.
They started working at making the hill slowly collecting the sand spread all around and arranging it in this nice inverted cone shape. They were working at it happily, like ants would gather food, slowly but diligently. Whenever the little sand fell down, they crushed it within their little fingers, like a mould of rice and stuck it back in place with the rest of the sand. They forgot their ice creams , and all the rest of the world and were working towards the one hill they wanted to make. It was slowly and steadily growing in size till they thought it was big enough. To guard it they put a stick on top of the hill and surrounded the circle drawn around the hill with shells and whatever else they managed to extract from the ground.
“Papa, kanna, Come, you can have ground nuts” Amma was shouting for them.
They wanted to show all these oldies, their hill, their very own hill. He forgot all about his hatred towards girls and locked her hands in his and ran towards Aunty and Amma and Appa. The sun was receding in the background and Appa wanted to take a good shot of the fiery redness, that ball so far away and yet so powerful. He could see papa and kanna running towards him and then they turned to show him something on the beach. He was looking in their direction, and suddenly saw it coming. On a reflex he moved back and shouted
“Papa kanna come here fast!!”
There was a trace of panic in his voice and something was going wrong. Instead of running towards they had turned suddenly towards the beach. They too had seen it coming and all they could think of was the hill which had to be saved. They were little soldiers, one wearing a pink frock and the other wearing drawers marching to save the precious hill surrounded by the stoned pathway.
A loud deafening noise resounded through the beach making all else silent. A wave so tall, so powerful rose and when it receded it washed with it all that was of earth and mud!