Ellen inched down over the grass, setting her beer can in a mound of white sand. She scooped her hands through the smooth grains and let them sift through her fingers, feeling them pour soothingly over her small delicately arched ankle. Then she reached for the beer again and took a long, deep gulp. Might as well get herself good and relaxed, she thought with a girlish giggle, taking another sip and running the cold bottom of the can down across the suntanned skin of one of her long, perfectly formed legs. She drained the beer can and tossed it down on the beach, watching it land a few feet from the pounding surf. A light-headed tingle seemed to ease the tense anxious feeling that she had grown uncomfortably accustomed to during the past hour. She lifted herself gracefully from the sand and looked down to the line of white frothy water splashing several yards away from her. There was nothing she would like more at this moment than a quick dip in the ocean, and she walked down towards the surf, the last full can of beer and her sandals still clenched in her hands.
Ellen felt the sand grow cool beneath her feet as she crossed the high-tide line and approached the water. The bonfire at the beach party was only a small flicker now and the sound of the crashing waves blotted out the loud music coming from the portable phonograph. She didn't want to go too deep into the water since she was all alone. She had heard so many terrible stories of moonlight dips ending in horrible tragedy for solitary swimmers, but she would be careful, she thought, as she settled down on the damp sand and pulled her jeans off her legs. She let the foamy water surge over her legs and splash onto her smooth flat belly, and then decided it wouldn't be wise for her to swim alone. If there was any trouble, she laughed to herself, there would be no one but a bunch of half-loaded college kids to fish her out, and they would probably sink!