Betsy and Wetsy's Day at the Beach

One day Betsy and Wetsy went to the beach. It had been a sunny morning, but by the time they set down their towels and picnic basket, dark clouds had rolled in.

Betsy brooded. Wetsy ran down to the water to make a sand castle. She did not actually know how to make sand castles, so usually she just stood with a plastic shovel, looking wistful, until people came by and offered to help. They would pound the sand into towers and turrets, digging out moats and carving bridges, and Wetsy would run and get a flower to place in one of the towers and they would congratulate her on what a beautiful job she had done.

The other children on the beach would come to admire the sand castle, and share their plastic toys with Wetsy. Everybody helped to make the sand castle even bigger, and no one ever crushed anything or stomped it in.

There was only one child on the beach who would ever dream of doing such a thing, and that was Betsy.

Wetsy was having so much fun making the castle that she didn't notice the tide coming in until it was too late. One tower fell away, and then another. The other children scampered away to a drier part of the beach, and this made Wetsy cry. She tried to build up one of the castle walls, but the waves kept sweeping the sand away.

Then a big wave came along and swept away Wetsy.

It tossed her and turned her and spun her around, and she came up coughing and spluttering and wetting herself, which didn't even matter because the ocean was so wet already.

A jellyfish swimming along the bottom of the sea floor saw some toes wiggling above his head. He contemplated stinging them, but decided that would be too much plot conflict, and so he swam along instead.

Back on the beach, Betsy sighed and put her book down. Then she went to tell the lifeguards that her sister had been swept away.

If Wetsy had had anything left in her bladder, she would surely have released it when she saw the three handsome lifeguards running toward her. They were lean with chiseled features, and it was with strong, brawny arms that they carried her back to the beach where a worried crowd had gathered.

The people who had helped build the sand castle now had towels and blankets to wrap up Wetsy, and their children had brought popsicles and extra sandwiches from their coolers. Wetsy sat down and had a big feast, and people brought her hot chocolate to warm up again after all the popsicles.

Betsy and Wetsy's parents had been called by the lifeguards, and soon they came running down the beach and scooped up Wetsy and stroked her hair. Wetsy's mother cried, and Betsy glared, and Wetsy's father offered to buy Wetsy an ice cream cone. Wetsy threw up at the very thought. After everybody cleaned up Wetsy, Betsy was sent to pack their things and to carry the still-full cooler to the car.

Just when Betsy and Wetsy's father had started up the car, the clouds went away and it was sunny again.

And that was Betsy and Wetsy's day at the beach.