perhaps

"Are you O.K?" I ask my little grandaughter. "K," she assures me. The wind is tugging her hood back and lifting her hair in a wild halo. Her small blue gumboots were lent to her for the afternoon by a teddy bear. They slip off each time she is picked up, and she is up and down and up and down and up..... and down. She seems to be a small homing device, trained to find water as quickly as possible. She chirps at the seagulls and calls out loudly to a dog frisking past us. I scoop her up as the beach gives way to rocks and weed and hold her tightly, willing myself to balance this precious load. She thinks I'm hugging her and gives me a kiss. Perhaps I was.