Spiderwebs the color of snow and sand wisp forming a crown around the sandman’s sun-kissed head. Flaps of brown skin dangle over the waistband of his frayed board shorts, his ass slipping out the backside. His beach ball belly bounces and gracefully vaults over fossilized corals, piled and fused together into boulders along the shoreline of Pupukea. They point their serrated funnels in all directions, ready to slice apart his brown bag papery skin. The timeless lizard knows well how to avoid the coral fossils with the sharpest razors, and the slimey lava rocks that will toss him flat on his ailing back. With his substantial weight, he only trusts the massive flat ones that don’t wobble or lie sideways. Navigating across the coral graveyard is only for a seasoned chess master. Sandman staggers through the labyrinth by artful toe pointing and tiger crouching. His crooked spine steers a lingering branch, touching down into splintered bowls of calcium carbonate. His flip flop clings desperately to the layers of peeling dead skin on the soles of his burnt feet. He finally spots a familiar cavernous passage that lowers him to a bright yellow patch of coarse sand, a welcome sensation to his talus and tarsals. A wave rushes into the yellow oasis, greeting his burning calves and bringing instant coolness. A startled rockfish scampers at his arrival, dodging his feet and taking refuge underneath a coral outcropping. The sandman slinks down into the secure yellow patch and conducts his heat into the gentle pool of water whirling around him. As the washing machine twirls him in and out of the coral graveyard, he grips a tombstone to keep from thrashing against the splintering rock wall. The water moves out and he spats a marshmallow loogie into his diving mask, smearing it into a thin, clear film across the glass lens then presses the frame firmly against his saggy face. A wave rolls in deep enough for him to make an exquisite merman dive over the pointy corals and into a pool of Moorish idolfish waiting to guide him into a sunken garden of cerebral corals. His stiff shoulders and vertebrae loosen from one another as they spread out into the salty bath. Arms extend outward into flippers, legs splash and kick his tail flying upwards and downwards; aquamarine delight sprays into the sky. Pock marks and stretch lines along his back take in the water and exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen, fueling his sea legs for a deep dive to say hello to the Yellow Tang and Parrotfish hiding in a decaying coral outcropping. They dart up towards him and take a nibble at the dead skin and tasty jam between his toes. Their nibbles tickle him but he does not mind too much, for in their snacking they gently steer him to a rocky structure where he spots the silvery school he always intended to join. The water is suddenly dense with silver sparkly streaks, streamlining, swirling ovals in a single swollen heap. His pulse quickens, gills widen, fingers-cupped together, he swoops upward, skims the surface and butterflies eagerly into class. He throws off his mask and lets go of his snorkel. A blinding sunray gleams along the surface, obscuring the sandman’s silhouette, his stroke fades into a column of silty green solution, sinking fast into the dense, viscous bottom.
