The newly discovered group of boys were laughing with tears, while the one boy on which the bucket was poured, started cursing them, trying to hit them with his fists but missed every single hit, since the bucket was still on his head… he wasn’t the smartest from them, that’s for sure.

“Look at him!”

Said one of them, flicking the back of his fist, inside another boy’s chest, like a “check this guy out”, laughing too.

“Good one Chef Mitsudo”

Chuckled another boy from the group, standing out from the others, having long and blonde hair, gray eyes, bathing shorts, expensive crocs, a baggy and expensive sports shirt, and a thin golden necklace.

Their clothing was chosen well, a good summer wardrobe if I may say. One of them wore a towel on his shoulders with his hair slicked back, and the others had casual summer fits, for example; straw hats, shorts, bathing shorts, crocs, or sandals.

Suddenly, the older man looked at the boy, and asked him if he was new around these places. The boy replied back, telling him that he just got here. In a matter of a second, the older man went up to the boy, proceeded to shake his hand and hug him with a slap on his back also.

Holding his palm on the new boy’s shoulder with his left hand, Chef Mitsudo looked at him with a relaxed look in his eyes, telling him that he shouldn’t be scared of anything, and that everyone here knows everyone, so if there is a problem, he can come to him.

Looking towards the left side of the boy, peeking near his face, he saw the group of boys fooling around, just goofing around like a bunch of teenagers that don’t require a moment of pause. With their towels twisted entirely, by pinching the top of it with a few fingers, then targeting the other’s legs, they started a goofing contest of who gets who. A single hit from the top of the towel, by pulling it towards the back, then quickly fronting it, making it stop in a moment of motion, becoming an invented whip. Along with their goofing in the background, more laughter, shouting of their names and grunting came from it.

Slightly turning towards the group of boys from the background, out of curiosity, a slight smile engraved upon his expression, but it was quickly put to a stop, from the shout of Chef Mitsudo, who, with one single friendly shout, made the entire group of boys be put in a straight line, just like an army chief.

“Stephan, show this guy around, make him feel at home”

Said the older man, with a cooking outfit on, looking like he just took a small break from cooking hours on hours continuously. He looked at another boy from the group, with a serious look on his face, pointing towards him with his index finger, uncovering the veins inside his right bicep, yet, he had a joking vibe inside his voice.

“Bando, Bendo, Benki, Bendi, Benny, Benji, the clients are waiting, the break is over, let’s go”

Said the same older man, turning around and walking himself back towards his own restaurant which was right around the corner

*All of their names start with the letter “B”... that’s not unusual at all…*

The rest that followed the older man, waved towards the boy one last one time, and then they all started running as fast as they could, towards the direction that the owner of the restaurant was going

“I will get there first!”

“You lost every time, Benki!!”

The rest were laughs and sounds of dirt moving around, dust flowing like fireflies around the air, and grass being stomped on, looking like a car-truck would’ve driven over them.

Suddenly, all the loud background noise, happy laughs, and concert vibes disappeared, and Stephan remained with our main person.

“They are all Chef Mitsudo’s nephews, if you’re curious about that”

Said Stephan, giving out a slight smile towards the boy, after seeing him narrow his eyes towards the group of boys, having his neck turned to ninety degrees, being flexed fully, showing off his trapezius muscles and his perfectly sharp chin.

“Oh, sorry, indeed, I thought you were with them”

“Nawh, we just hang out from time to time, but they usually aren’t that “free”, mostly they help their uncle, willingly if you’re curious… again. I’m Stephan by the way, and I will be your guide right now”

“Stephan, nice meeting you, I’m Kenny, Kenny Brix”

They shook hands with firm grips from both ways.

“Shall we?”

Asked Stephan with a quick smile on his face, turning half of his body towards the back part of them, showing the path with the back of his thumb, showing the direction like a sign put out to show indications.

The cut from the noise of the rest of the group, has let Kenny hear the sound of the slight breeze moving the flowers of the pink trees, sprinkled near the paved road going down, just like an intense bend downwards, on which they were walking.

“What got you in these parts, Kenny?”

“A friend of mine told me about this place, but to be really honest, it’s not that bad… it’s fine”

“Fine, eh?”

Chuckled Stephan, feeling a little bit hurt by the last word that came out of Kenny’s mouth.

Then they headed towards the beach, on Stephan’s mobile commands. It was an open place, with crystal clear water, wide as far as your eyes can see, the sand clean and hot. On the sand, there was a bigger cabin, supported in the air by four thick wooden “legs” and a small, iron ladder that got all the way towards the cabin of the lifeguard.

Stephan suddenly stopped right on the stairs that were leading down towards the beach, raising his right leg, preparing to untie one of his shoes.

“Take off your shoes, you don’t want sand inside the fabric of your shoes”

Said Stephan, supporting his lower back to a low wooden supports, in the left and right side, situated before four concrete stairs, which were sprinkled with sand.

“Oh, right, right, It happened to me once and I couldn’t wear those shoes anymore, it was such a pain”

Sighted Kenny, sitting down on one of the stairs, placing both of his hands on one of his shoes, untying it.

“It’s just a piece of fabric, there is no reason to be mad for it, however much it would cost. It does not bring you happiness or sadness, it’s only a shoe, so why be angry, eh?”

Asked Stephan, giving out a slight chuckle towards the end of his sentence, along with a slap of the back of his hand, on Kenny’s chest, which he found a new gesture, a gesture of friendliness that he never saw someone that he met in his life do this kind of gesture.

As soon as Kenny stepped on the sand with his bare feet, an old flashback came back from the deepest corners of his memories. Suddenly, the flashback replicated in a vision that lasted a few seconds. It was more of a dream, where he was laughing and his father was holding his hand, he was years younger. Both of them joyful, running on the hot sand, towards the ocean in front of them.

“It boourns! Run Kenny, run! Auch auch which, yauch!"

Shouted his father jokingly, trying to touch the sand as little as he could, by raising his foot continuingly, right after putting it down.

Meanwhile small Kenny was giggling and laughing with no bother in this world, enjoying the moment, not knowing that moments like this should not be forgotten, even if the worst illness in the world would strike his thinking abilities.

An echoed voice interrupted his day-dreaming, dragging him back to the real world, which created a slight disgust and annoyment formed around his lips, creasing his upper-mouth skin that faded a few seconds later.

“Kenn–”

“Kenny!”

“Kenny—!”

“I know this beach”

Said Kenny, with watery eyes, filled with sorrowness, like two mirrors that could reflect his heart’s image.

A moment of silence came in, and only the breeze of the sea and the sound of the waves retracting backwards could be heard, as well as the singing of the gulls.

“Really… that’s nice”

Stephan took a pause of confusion, since he mentioned that this was his first time coming to the village, but decided to not ask him the question “why”, thinking that it would be rude towards Kenny, making him think that he’s some kind of fool.

Stephan showed him the beach, which was just a simple beach, nothing extra, only very distorted and fading memories from his daydreams came in, remembering the exact shape that the beach was in, many years ago, untouched.

A loud group of girls mixed in with very few boys, were playing volleyball on the edge of the beach, near a tall forest that perfectly placed its shadows exactly over the place that they played.

“One second”

Said Stephan abruptly, jumping in the game, and even scoring one point, high fiving each of his teammates, waving goodbye and leaving as abruptly as he came in.

“Come on, stay for the last point!”

Exclaimed three of the girls in unison, with joyful faces and chuckles along their voices.

“Maybe later, but I’ll take this guy too, alright?!”

Exclaimed Stephan back, putting his arm around the back of Kenny’s neck, then slapping his chest with the back of his palm, again, in a friendly manner.

“Not a problem friend!”

Exclaimed a boy from the few of them, doing a movement with his arms for context, shaking them back and forth.

“You’ll get to meet a lot of people with the time, it’s nothing to be worried about”

Interacted Stephan, seeing how confused Kenny was at the extroverted interaction between him and the rest of the sport players.

Continuing their path on the shadowed, sand road, covered by the semi-cold gray dark-pale shadows of the trees from the margins of the beach, they arrived at path made inside the forest, going towards the left, right over a few steps made out of dirt, with a mix of sand, engraved in them.

The path over the stairs showcased a type of improvised zoo, few meters high, as high as the trees would extend themselves. Many open round opened cages made out of wood and steel were sprinkled and intentionally stuck on the trees.

“Wow, what is all this?”

Asked Kenny looking up and at shoulder length, at all parrots and other species of birds flying around and just relaxing themselves in the cold-ish shadow of the trees blocking the hot sun rays.

“This entire place was part of the beach. Previously, this place was filled with dry, thick large wood logs and large rocks,, but a girl from our home hood has offered herself to volunteer to give originality to this place. Long story short, we offered ourselves too, and then others helped too, small sponsors as well. It took some time to clean up the bushes and the overgrown trees, carrying out the wooden longs and the rocks as well, but it was all worth it. After everything was done, we bought the small cages, bought some food, spread it in small bowls, and yeah… there’s that”

After explaining, a bright beam of light coming through the leaves of the trees, has made Kenny guess Stephan as a saint, the more he looked at him. The perfect friend. That’s what he thought to himself, after which he switched his gaze towards the singing of the birds, amazed by their small home inside a small percentage of the forest.

The next spot that Stephan showed Kenny, was the inside of the village, more of a presentation.