"Endless Dunes" by Sam Whittaker

Endless Dunes

By Sam Whittaker

Maggie grunted and dropped the beach umbrella, towel, and cooler she’d been lugging up the dune. At twenty-seven years of age, she thought she’d have more patience, but those little twins were beyond a handful. Kayce and Kandace were going on five years old, but possessed the attention span of gnats.

And what was she thinking, giving them such similar names? It was a rookie parenting mistake. Rob hadn’t been much help, either. He wasn’t even with them on their short-lived trip to that beach that day. He was working the weekend shift at the office.

While Maggie applauded his work ethic, she wished he’d apply some of that same sticktoitiveness to his family. 

A gust of wind blew sand into her eyes, and she cursed.

Loudly.

That, of course, the twins noticed. When she finished rubbing her eyes, she found the pair of them staring wide-eyed at her, shocked by the uncharacteristic profanity.

“Mommy!” Kandance said. “That’s naughty!”

Maggie expelled a sigh, followed by a mumbled complaint. “Sorry, sweety,” she said. “Mommy’s just frustrated.” The apologetic expression on her face evaporated once she discerned the state of her children’s feet.

“Why have you taken your shoes off again? I told you to put them on!”

“I like the sand in my toes,” Kayce said. The boy flashed a beaming smile, as if he didn’t comprehend how angry his mother was getting.

“Put them on, right this second,” she snapped. “Both of you.”

Both kids sat in the sand and fumbled with the shoes they carried, neglecting to release their towels, making it impossible to accomplish the task that had been put to them.

“Never mind,” Maggie shouted. “I’ll do it!”

Three minutes later, both children’s shoes were on, everyone had the gear they were responsible for, and with the ocean at their backs, they worked at cresting the dune before them.

When they reached the top, Maggie froze and stared dumbly at the scene before her. There was more beach than she recalled. The sand sloped downward, followed by a further expanse of the stuff, and then another rising dune stretched beyond that. She could faintly hear the sounds of the main street running through the small coastal Oregon town adjacent to the beach. She didn’t recall walking across that much sand. She sighed, then started down the sandy slope.

Noises of childish complaint arose behind her, and she turned in time to see Kandace lose her balance. The girl tipped forward and fell face-first into the sand. She tumbled down the dune, shrieking and crying as sand got in her face and hair.

Kayce thought this looked like great fun, so he threw his towel to the side and jumped. His joy vanished the instant his little body collided with the sand, and the wind was driven from him.

Maggie saw to both her kids, comforting them and trying to soothe their frantic states. Five minutes later, they merely sniffled, and she convinced them it was time to push on.

They trudged through the soft sand. It wasn’t easy going. The stuff swallowed their feet and prevented them from traveling at speed.

They came to the next rising dune and inched up its unforgiving surface. The slope was much steeper than it appeared. More than once, Maggie feared her children would be unable to navigate it, and she would have to deposit her belongings at the top of the dune only to return and collect her incapable brood.

When all three of them made it to the crest without assistance from one another, she breathed a sigh of relief. That relief was short-lived, however.

Stretching out before them was even more sand. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Mommy,” Kayce said, unable to conceal the whininess in his tone, “how much longer until we get to the van?”

She didn’t know how to answer him. Where there should have been an asphalt parking lot was yet another expanse of sand. Off in the distance, she could see the thin, dark hints of the small town where they had stopped. But it looked like it was miles away.

“I…” she started to say, then snapped her mouth closed. “Soon, baby,” she said, adopting a false confidence.

She started them walking again. Another dune stood before them, but it was a ways off. The closer they came to it, the more concealed was their view of the distant town.

A creeping sensation crawled down her overheated skin. As they drew nearer to the dune, she feared that when they arrived at the top, she wouldn’t like what lay before them.

She was right.

At the dune’s crest, she dropped to her knees and voiced a shapeless cry of defeat. The minuscule visual rumors of the town were no longer visible. But how could that be? They had been walking toward it. It ought to be even more visible… not less.

“Mommy?” came Kandace’s worried cry.

But when Maggie turned to look at her daughter, she was gone. A small plume of sand flew up from the place her daughter should have been. She dove to the spot and started tossing aside handfuls of sand.

“Kayce, help your Mommy!” she uttered in a watery tone.

There came a hissing noise, as if some moved quickly through the sand. When she turned, she saw that Kayce was now gone, too.

“No!” she cried. “My babies!”

The ground shifted beneath her. She was too distraught to notice until her legs were half buried. She attempted to jerk away from whatever pulled her in. Large toothy protrusions bit deep into her legs, and before she knew it, she was yanked downward. As she gasped for air, she received only a mouthful of grit.

Then, all was sand and darkness.