Toby's Tale

Toby was lying on the soft golden sand soaking up the heat of the sun. All his friends had gone abroad for their holidays when the factory closed for the three weeks. But Toby had found this little cove, hidden from all the world. He knew that no one else would come there. He had been coming here for a few years now and had never seen anyone. Even the road down to it was a dirt track.

Toby had decided that he would be brave enough to strip off completely. On the right side of him was the quicksand with all the relevant flags and notices. Behind him he had a twenty foot high wall. One his left was a cliff that was impossible to reach. He had found a place he could safely hide his car and his tent about three miles back. He had found a small woods that had an empty clearing in it. Anyone driving by would not see his car or his tent. Toby had left his clothes in the tent and had gone to the beach only wearing the swimming shorts. But now he slipped these off. He had become a naturist.

Toby had only found the way to this deserted spot by accident some years previous. He had been walking and spotted a cave in the cliffs. He had climbed into the cave and found it led out to just below a bush the other end. This could not be seen from above. It was a perfect hiding spot. But the years had gone by and the "DANGER LOOSE ROCKS" sign had gone up as the cliff had become unstable through the actions of the tide.

Toby knew that the tide covered the beach completely when it was in, but he had another 7 hours before that happened. Toby was at peace with the world. The sum was shining and the sea was blue. Just a gentle breeze now and then drifted by.

Some miles away, a tanker lorry was bouncing along the road. The driver and his mate were arguing. They had been paid a lot of money to dump the contents of the lorry safely. The driver did not want to go all the way to the official dump. His mate had argued about the environment. But he was not driving.

Toby was fast asleep when he heard the "BANG" of a plane breaking the sound barrier. It woke him up. He could not see what had done it. The plane was already out of site. Toby opened a lager he had in the cool bag and drunk it down while it was still cold. He finished it and shut his eyes again and dropped off to sleep once more.

The lorry continued to pitch and sway as it went on it's way. Every time the lorry went around a bend, the lorry would lean over as the contents sloshed about in the tank. The drivers mate was getting worried that the lorry would not make it much further. The driver saw a dirt track and convinced his mate they could dump it safely here out of sight. The lorry turned into the dirt track and nearly rolled over. The weight of its contents were too much for the lorry, but they were being paid handsomely to dump it.

The lorry slowed to a crawl and the driver had to put it in bottom gear to get up the steep hill. When they got to the top of the hill they saw the cliffs and the top of the wall. They went along at a snails pace with the engine virtually on tick over in case they turned the lorry over. The driver stopped the lorry and the two of them went to look over the wall. But a glider drifted by over head and all the they saw was the DANGER LOOSE ROCKS sign at the wall and the quicksand notices with it. Because of the quicksand the way to the beach had been bricked up at the turn of the century.

The driver and his mate went back to the lorry. The driver convinced his mate that they must dump the load there. The tide will take it out to sea or the quicksand will drag it under. They started the engine again and turned the lorry round and backed up to the wall. The mate got out and opened all the valves. The lorry driver revved the engine.

Out of the tank sprayed the goo. It shot out clear over the wall. Down below, Toby suddenly got hit by a mass of the goo. As soon as it hit him, it seemed to harden. Toby tried to shout but had to shut his eyes and mouth to stop them getting filled with the goo. Toby rolled over, but the goo kept coming and started to wrap him up in it. Toby dare not open his eyes. He rolled the other way but this seemed to make it worse. The goo was all around his legs. He tried to get up but found he couldn't. He tried to roll again, but all that he had done was to make it a lot worse as the sand was now mixing with the goo.

Soon Toby was covered from head to toe in the goo. The sand acted like an abrasive and started to scratch him. The glue was thickening all the time. The goo was getting heavier by the second. Soon Toby was nearly immobilised. He managed to give one last spurt of energy and had managed to roll to his right. Now as he rolled he dragged the goo with him and it wrapped him up good and tight. He rolled over 3 times. He never realised he had passed the flags marking the boundaries of the quicksand.

Now the goo had stopped falling on him so he opened his eyes. To his horror everything looked brownish with specks. The glue had covered his eyes and he was looking through it. His nostrils for some reason was left clear, (probably because the goo came at him at an angle and as his head was that end, it left them free) and they could just be seen. But his nose was covered in the goo.

Toby saw he was on the wrong side of the flags. He tried to roll but found himself sink slightly. He struggled and he sank a bit more. He realised he had to stop struggling so he did not sink any further.

At the top of the wall the driver told his mate to jump in. He started the engine. His mate called the driver back to the wall. They looked over and they saw a roll of the messy goo sinking in the quicksand. "Told you it would be okay. That will sink in about an hour", the driver said.

They jumped in the lorry and the driver said "$450 quid to dump some contact glue. Not bad for an hours work is it!". His mate agreed and the lorry bumped its way back along the dirt track. Down below, Toby was now halfway down in the quicksand. The sun quickly dried the contact glue leaving Toby mummified forever.

An hour later and all that could be seen of Toby was the glue over his face. He watched as the oozing sand slowly crept past his eyes. He could not shout as the glue had stuck his mouth shut. He watched as the sand slowly rose above him leaving him looking up at the shaft of daylight shining down on him. Then he saw the wet sand slowly turning inwards towards him and it caved in on him and all went black.

10.05.06