The Channel

Management made a wall round a square of dry sand. We left an opening facing the sea.

A child was dragging a stick from the water towards it. In her other hand she had a piece of bark with a leaf caught in a crack.

“Where is that going?” we asked.

“In there.”

We packed a ridge across her channel, just outside the opening.

The water reached the ridge. She watched it for a moment, then drew the stick round its left end and joined the channel again on our side.

We extended the ridge across the new cut.

She put the bark in the shallow pool below us. It turned slowly. She straightened the leaf and gave it a little push with the stick.

“It needs a way in,” she said.

“There was an opening.”

She pointed at the ridge.

The sand had darkened. A thin stream was coming through the middle, carrying grains into our square.

We pulled out the soft part and laid two fingers side by side across the narrow channel. The water gathered against them. With our free hand we began pressing sand against their ends.

The bark came up to the side of our forefinger.

“Those,” she said.

We looked at her.

She lifted the end of the stick, then lowered it.

We lifted our fingers. She guided the bark through with the stick. We laid them down again.