“You’re never going to find it,” she said.
“If you’re not going to help, then why did you come?” I asked.
“To watch you suffer,” she said, trying to laugh. “It’s just a can, someone probably threw it away.”
“There’s so much other trash still on the beach, though.”
“Why do you even want this?”
I ignored her and returned my focus to the beach. I was dragging my feet through the sand, hoping to pull up my trash from yesterday. “This is where we were, right?”
“Oh my god, who cares? Let’s just leave! It’s a can! An empty can! Why in the world are you doing this?”
“It’s a talisman, OK?” I finally told her.
She stared at me with no warmth in her eyes, no expression on her face.
“I got it a long time ago…”
Still nothing. I turned back to the sand, not knowing how much to explain, or what I was trying to explain.
“I didn’t mean to bring it here. The thing is, I really can’t let people see the symbol on the bottom. It exposes me.”
I paused, looking into the sand and considered if “expose” was the right word.
I looked up and she was gone. I was surrounded by figures in black, and my day at the beach came to an end.
This story is part of a series of weekly flash fiction posts. The title and story are inspired by the results of a random word generator.