Child’s Play

‘Look at the colour of the sea,’ exclaimed Jane. ‘It’s so beautiful!’ She always gets excited when she takes me to new places. This time it was Hyams Beach on the South Coast, about two and a half hours out of Sydney.

‘I love it down here,’ she went on. ‘We used to spend summer holidays on the South Coast when we were little and lived in Canberra.’

I looked out to the sea. I had never seen a beach with such white sand or water that was such a beautiful shade of blue. So clear you could see right to the bottom. It was spectacular.

‘It is very nice, my darling. Are there any sharks here?’

Jane ignored me, not wanting to put me off. But I knew. Of course there were sharks here. Hyams Beach is in Jervis Bay, a marine park. And that’s where sharks like to live, in the fucking sea. I never brought it up again.

Jane, myself and the kids had rented a small house right on the beach for a few days and we couldn’t wait to get out onto the sand and go for a swim. But I soon found out why I hadn’t spent a lot of time on the South Coast. The water was freezing cold. Still, I wasn’t going to let a little thing like the subantarctic water temperature stop me from swimming.

‘Come on everyone, let’s get in!’ I ran and dived head-first into the water. Suddenly I could feel the breath rushing from my body and within seconds hypothermia was setting in. I looked at the children and they, just like the water, had turned a lovely shade of blue.

‘Oh my God, it’s cold,’ I gasped. We were all in and out in a matter of seconds.

‘Hey kids, let’s play in the sand,’ I suggested. We set up a blanket and tried to thaw ourselves out while gazing out to sea for a while, saying nothing, just taking it all in and waiting for the feeling to return to our extremities.

‘Just look at the view!’ Jane waved her hand to direct my gaze towards the idyllic scene before us – and her wedding ring went flying off her hand. The water was so cold her fingers had shrunk. I tried to follow the ring through the air, but the sun hit my eyes and I lost track of it.

‘Nobody move! It’s over there somewhere,’ I shouted.

This was serious. I didn’t want to lose Jane’s wedding ring. So I got up and started looking in the area where I thought it had landed. The sand was white and fine and I realised that anything heavy, like gold, would sink straight in and might never be found again.

‘I’ll find it, Dadda.’ My ten-year-old daughter, Eliza-Jane, or EJ as she’s usually known, was up and running to where she thought it might be.

‘Stop!’ I shrieked. ‘If we stand on it, we’ll never find it again.’

The children froze. It was the second time they had done that in as many minutes.

‘Okay, kids. You guys go over there and Dadda will hunt for the ring.’

Jane didn’t seem that fussed, but I was determined to find it. I started scanning the surface of the beach to see if it reflected the sun. Nothing. It was gone.

‘Oh well. You’ll just have to buy me another one,’ Jane said calmly.

I was not going to let this go. But what was I going to do? I sat and scratched my head.

‘Jane, you keep the kids over there and stay off this section of the beach,’ I said. ‘I’ll be right back.’

I got up and left the beach, grabbed the car keys and hightailed it to Nowra, the nearest big town. I had a plan. I was going to rent or buy a metal detector. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t take me long to find one. I guessed it wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Soon I was running back to the beach, metal detector in hand. I looked like I was sweeping for explosive devices.

‘Right, kids. You guys stay over there and I will perform the search,’ I said, acting like I knew what I was doing.

I proceeded to map out a grid on the beach. I would search it section by section until I located the ring.

Two hours later, I had found nothing. It was an incredibly clean beach. Not even a bottle top had shown up. In the meantime Jane and the kids had made sand sculptures of mermaids. Not small ones; they were full size. But the sun was starting to go down and now the kids were bored to death.

I was still searching frantically. Jane stared at me in disbelief.

‘Can I have a go with the machine, Dadda?’ EJ was keen to help.

‘Sorry, baby, this is serious stuff here. I have to do it. I need to find your mum’s ring. So, best if you just stay out of the way.’

Back to work the grid I went for a second time. Still nothing. The sun was just about to set and I was exhausted. I dropped the metal detector and lay flat out on the beach, covered in sweat.

EJ rushed in and grabbed the device. ‘Let me have a go.’

I wanted to stop her but was too tired. I stayed on the sand, resigned to the fact that I would never find the ring. I reached out and held Jane’s hand. ‘Sorry, baby. I tried.’

Suddenly I heard a beeping noise. I looked over and EJ was standing there with the metal detector, smiling at me. And holding her mum’s wedding ring.

‘I told you I would find it, Dadda.’

I had searched the beach methodically for three hours in the searing heat and found nothing. EJ had found the ring in less than one minute in near darkness.

‘Right, I’d better take the metal detector back to the shop, eh?’

I headed for the car. My work was done.

EJ at Hyams Beach after finding her mum’s wedding ring