Two bare feet tap lightly onto the front porch of this house. The house is small, and worn from being so close to the ocean. Sand seems to have overrun every nook and cranny. The blue paint has chipped away in several spots, but you can still see the charm of the house. The owner of the bare feet also happens to be the owner of this house. Her toes are painted the same shade of blue, to show her solidarity she likes to think. The sweater she wore hung loosely over her shoulders and engulfed her shorts. Her hair cupped her face, strands trying to escape with the blow of the wind. A small black cat wound it’s way between her bare feet and purred loudly.

“Hey, Barty,” the cat mewed in response, and turned his head to look at her. The cat’s full name is actually Bartemus, but she and the house took him in as Barty. His yellow eyes watched with hungry intent at the stray hairs flying around her face.

“No,” she held her tea closer to her chest as she sat on her favorite porch chair, “we are not playing “eat Tallulah’s hair” today.” The cat left her alone, but never removed his gaze from her sandy blonde head.

In all honesty, Tallulah knew she was made for the ocean. Not the warm, touristy, places of Florida, or California. Her love for the ocean, her connection to it, was with the rough waves of northern Oregon. Her heart lied with-in the cloudy days that covered her little part of the sea. She always joked that her lips would always taste like salt, and her shoes always will have sand in them. Her mom always joked that she’d never fall in love if she kept looking at the waves like they were long lost lovers, but she couldn’t help it. Nothing felt more right than when the ocean lapped at her feet, or crashed along the shoreline in her line of sight.

When asked why she loved the ocean, Tallulah would just laugh and say she didn’t know, but she did. When she was just a teenager, 14 or 15, she was standing in the sea with the water up to her knees. She remembered the way the tides felt pulling on her legs, and at the same time her soul. She closed her eyes and raised her face to the sky to feel the first drops of rain, and then she blacked out. She woke up in a cove by herself, and just walked home. No one noticed her absence. Ever since then, the big blue sea felt like her best friend, and she loved the salt and sand with all her heart.