“A Teenager’s First Glimpse of California”

“The sun stood high when Lammet woke. It was Saturday and the scene on which his tired eyes (assisted by his wire rims once he had found and positioned them) sought to focus caused his mouth and eyes to gradually open, giving his face a look of grateful astonishment. Kar had parked the van directly in front of, and in a space perpendicular to, the beach. The beach stretched wider than he had ever imagined, possibly a hundred yards from the water to the boardwalk. Its sand had a rose-tinged flesh color. Rows of white wooden four-by-fours, which were slightly askew and whose paint had sloughed off in patches and streaks, supported volleyball nets as far down the beach as Lammet could see. Everywhere he looked there were girls: young girls, pretty girls, girls in bikinis, just as they had imagined there would be. He saw girls playing volleyball and girls lying on their backs in the sand with their knees raised up and lightly slapping together. Girls sipped cans of Coke and playfully kicked sand at one another. Girls emerged from the spumy surf like multifold giddy Aphrodites, only lacking their half shells and full-cheeked winds. Girls leaned against upright surfboards and rubbed suntan oil into each other’s backs. Indeed, this was California, “just like I pictured it” thought the newcomer, anticipating Stevie Wonder’s New York City bus rider.”