Prompt: write a positive experience and a negative experience using the same setting.
POSITIVE
He drenched himself headfirst into the cool water. Immersed. Complete. Sunlight, as it hit the water, shifted its forward march into a playful amble, and the particles of light tickled him. Below was only – swish, swish. The swish of columns of kelp, towers of long slender leaves floating back and forth with the ebb and flow of the water beating on the rocky shore.
And wasn’t he lucky! All skin, no limbs, just a hairless, smooth back and belly. Nerve endings satiated. Cold bliss. Immersion. Completeness. God. Next to him was a fellow seal tangled in seaweed, engaged in some sort of dance with light and water.
And he began to rise, letting his buoncy elevate him, riding the currents to the rocky beach. The sun hit him and the cold evaporated completely. Dozens of seals laid out, belly up with infectious grins under their wiskers. Now this is what life is about. His flippers applauded creation, a cute seal snuggled against his belly and they both were enveloped in sunlight.
NEGATIVE
The long-hair luddites high on marijuana and low on deodorant formed a tight line around the defensive animals. Ok - Julie thought – they weren’t really luddites as she saw the guy with the spandex shorts arrive in a Ford Explorer. And he wasn’t high. And his hair was short. And he smelled good, come to think of it. But that’s besides the point! What the hell were these people doing on Children’s Beach - the only place she couldn’t take her kids because of the damn seals?
“Get the hell out of here! Julie roared at the six individuals toiling with some weird fuzzy fabric. Soon enough, these hippies dressed themselves as seals - all but one who beat on his drum for dramatic effect. Julie’s 3-year old squealed in delight.
“Mommy! Mommy! Look at those seals, MOMMY!” Julie was angry. All she wanted to do was roll her towel out, unravel the latest Oprah magazine and count the clouds between her toes. Her stroller already was packed to the brim with beach gear and now she looked as menacing as a hummer. “MOMMY, MOMMY! Look at the seal, it’s like Disney LAND!”
The hippies began their activist show with the real seals oblivious to the spectacle.
“Seals, seals! Let’s keep this beach real! For the children, for the future!”
Are you kidding me? – Julie said, frustrated. It didn’t stop her, as she forced her SUV stroller into the theater performance.
“DAMN you! Let my kid play with the seals!”
