"Another rainy day and nothing to do", thought Margaret as she looked out her bedroom window.

Maggie, as her friends called her, had once lived in Arizona. When it rained there the storms were short and the sun would brightly shine shortly afterwards. But here, along the Pacific Ocean, it always rained. At least it seemed that way to a ten year old girl who really enjoyed playing outside on weekends.

Maggie looked around her room. "I could read a book," she thought. "No, I don't feel like reading. " "I could listen to music or play with some of my toys. But that doesn't seem like fun either."

Maggie flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling thinking that the whole day would just be a waste of time. She should have stayed in her pajamas and slept! Even laying on her bed seemed boring.

There was a gentle knock on her door and her mother looked in on her. "Maggie," she said. "Daniel is here to see you." Daniel lives a few houses away and is Maggie's best buddy for exploring the near by beach. "He is?" She said, and went down stairs to see her friend.

"Hi Daniel, what are you doing here?" Maggie asked. " I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the beach this morning?"

"Are you kidding? In this rain?" Maggie asked being surprised Daniel would want to be outside after last night's storm. "Sure, why not?" He said.

Maggie's mother interrupted and said, while opening the closet door, "If you're going out to the beach you make sure you wear this rain coat and put on your boots."

"But mom, it's raining!" Maggie protested. " Honey, you won't melt in the rain! It's a warm day and it would be good for you to get out for awhile. You complained all morning about being bored!"

"All right." Maggie said as she reluctantly put on her boots. "But I don't know what we'll find to do in the rain."

Maggie and Daniel went out onto the front porch. It had actually stopped raining for now and Maggie thought that the weather just might improve. She and Daniel walked a short distance to the end of the street where a set of wood stairs lead down to the beach.

" I was getting sort of board ." Daniel said. " I played with my computer for awhile this morning. But then I wanted to do something different. I thought it would be fun to see what we could find on the beach after that big storm last night"

"Yeah, did you hear the wind blowing?" Maggie asked. "I've never heard it blow so hard. My windows rattled all night. That sound gave me the chills and I covered my ears so I couldn't hear it."

"My windows rattled too." Daniel replied. " It reminded me of those movies on TV when a ghost is trying to get into the house!" "Yeah," Maggie said, "that's a good way to describe the wind- ghostly!"

Maggie and Daniel started running up the beach with no definite place in mind to go. They just enjoyed running and since there was no one else outside today they had the whole beach to themselves.

As they ran their feet made squishing sounds in the wet sand. Squish squish squish. Each foot print quickly filled with a little water. Both laughed at the sounds they could make. Maggie ran around in circles stomping on the sand making louder and louder squishing sounds.

"Hey, over there!" Daniel said pointing toward a pile of drift wood. " Somebody must have lost a kite."

Maggie gently unsnaged the kite from the drift wood. "It doesn't look as though it's in bad shape." She said.

"Someone must have been flying it and it got away." Daniel suggested.

"Could be." Maggie replied. "Let's see if we can get it to fly again."

Maggie and Daniel took the kite closer to open beach away from the drift wood. "You hang onto the kite Daniel, while I try to get it untangled." Maggie said as she unwound the knotted string. "There, I think I have it."

"There's not much wind for kite flying right now." Daniel observed. "Well, let's try it anyway." Maggie said.

Maggie started running down the beach with the kite in tow. The kite's plastic fabric rattled and rippled as it bounced along the sand. "It sounds like its going to fall apart" Daniel called out.

Maggie could also hear it bouncing along and thought she'd better stop. But just then a guest of wind came rushing down the beach and caught the kite. With a loud snap, the plastic fabric became taunt and the kite lifted off the ground and into the air.

"Wow!" Daniel yelled. "It's flying!"

Maggie turned around and watched the kit lifting higher into the sky. She could hear the wind playing with the kite causing it to quiver with each gust. She could feel it tugging on the string held tightly in her hand. When she pulled tightly on the string the kite would rise higher. Then, just as the wind had started, it stopped. The kite came crashing down to the ground. Thud.

"Let's try it again." Maggie said as she and Daniel ran to where the kite had landed. Daniel picked it up. But they both noticed that one of the struts had broken when the kite fell to the ground.

"I don't think this kits is going to fly again." Daniel observed. "I don't think so either." Agreed Maggie. They put the kite in a public trash can and again, they both took off running up the beach looking to see what last night's storm may have brought in from the sea.

"Hey!" Daniel shouted. "Look at this shell. You don't find these on this beach very often." He picked it up and placed it next to his ear.

"What are you doing?" Maggie asked.

"I can hear the ocean in side the shell." Daniel answered. "Oh sure you can!" Maggie said somewhat sarcastically. "You're standing right by the ocean! Of course you can hear it!"

"No, really, you can hear a distant sea if you listen to the shell." "Let me listen" Maggie asked. She held the conical shaped shell up to her ear. "Hey, you're right!" She said surprised at what she heard. " How can that be?"

"I think it has to do with the shape of the shell." Daniel suggested. "It's hollow inside and you can hear the wind blowing across the outside of the shell causing the air inside to resonate."

"Resonate?" Maggie asked. "Yeah, the air inside the shell is made to vibrate by the wind rubbing against the shell's surface. The shape of the shell makes these sounds louder and you can hear them. "

"Oh, I hear it now!" Placing the shell once again against here ear. "Of course it really isn't the ocean you hear. It just sounds like it." With that Maggie put the shell in her pocket. This was something to share with mom.

"I don't see much stuff from the storm last night." Maggie said. " Maybe we should walk closer to the shore line where all the drift wood is located."

Things floating in the sea are always tossed up in piles on the beach during a storm and going along the drift wood proved a good choice.

"Look at this!" Daniel said. He'd found and old wood crate that looked as if it had been in the water a long time. It was broken open and there was nothing in side. But Daniel picked up a heavy stick and began to bang on the it. Wherever he hit the crate it made a different tone. He banged on it trying to make it sound like a drum.

"Stop that Daniel. It's annoying." Said Maggie. "No, it's Rock n' Roll!" Replied Daniel. "Yeah, it's noisy!" Maggie fired back.

Once again the wind began to pick up. "It looks like it is going rain." Maggie said pointing toward the darkening sky. "Perhaps we should head back." At that point it started to rain and rain hard.

Daniel saw a very large tree stump laying ahead on the beach. It must have been floating in the ocean for a long time. The inside had rotted out leaving a cave like hollow. "Hey, I think we can both get inside that old tree over there!" "Are you sure?" Maggie asked realizing the tree stump was big. But was it big enough for two kids?

Both climbed inside with just enough room to get out of the torrent of rain which was falling on the beach.

"Whew! That was close." Maggie said.

"Shhhh." Daniel said. "Listen!" Both sat quietly and listened to the sound of the rain as it fell on the outside of the stump. The hollow stump, like the shell, resonated with the beat of each rain drop. "What a neat sound!" Daniel said.

"It sure is. You can also hear the echo of the ocean surf in here as well!" Maggie added. " I can even hear the tinkling of the sand as it blows by. I wish I had my cassette recorder!"

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and the roaring crack of thunder. "Wow!" Maggie said. I've never seen it lightening over the ocean before." "Me neither." Said Daniel.

A second flash of lightening and roar of thunder. "Did you see that!" Daniel excitedly asked Maggie. "See what?"

"There was something bobbing in the surf. I saw it when the lightening flashed. Look, there it is again!"

"It looks like a glass float." Daniel said in an excited voice. " A glass what?" Maggie asked.

"Its a float the Japanese use on fishing nets. They sometimes break loose and drift in the ocean for years. They're carried in the current up north past Alaska and then down the west coast. They usually come ashore during storms like this." Daniel explained. "I want that float!"

"Are you crazy Daniel? You can't go out there in weather like this!"

The lightening and thunder continued. Daniel began to count one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, between the flash and the clap of thunder. He could tell that the lightening storm was quickly moving away because the length of time between his seeing the flash of lightening and hearing the thunder continued to get larger. The more counts between the two the further away the storm.

He kept an eye on the float which continued to ride in the surf. He wanted that float. Finally, he decided it was safe to make a dash to grab it.

"Where are you going?" Maggie yelled as Daniel dashed out toward the ocean.

He didn't have time to answer. He quickly sprinted across the beach and into the surf. He reached down and grasped the large dark green glass float from the water. Then he ran as fast as he could back to the tree stump which had become a temporary shelter for he and Maggie.

"I got it!" Daniel said nearly out of breath.

Maggie admonish him. "That was a crazy thing to do Daniel!"

"Yeah." Daniel said. "But I got it!"

The rain began to fall more gently. Daniel sat and looked at his trophy from the sea. There was a little salt water inside which had seeped in through a small crack. The float must have been in the ocean for decades for it to have collected water like it had. He tapped on the glass ball with his finger nail. It sounded thick and heavy. "Wow!" is about all he could say.

"I think its stopped raining" Maggie observed. They both crawled out of their little cave and began walking down the beach toward home.

After Daniel had gone home Maggie went back to her bedroom and changed into her pajamas and bathrobe. It was raining outside once again.

Maggie heard her mother drive into the garage and then bring the groceries in and set them on the kitchen table. Her mother had been to the super market during the storm and wasn't aware that the kids had been on the beach when it started to lightening. Maggie thought, perhaps, it was best not to tell her unless she asked.

"Hi, Maggie." Her mother said as she came by her room to check on her. "I'm glad you came back home. I was worried you may have stayed out too long and got caught in that down pour."

"What did you and Daniel do?" She asked.

"We went for a walk." Maggie replied.

"What did you do on your walk?"

Maggie thought for a moment about the sound of the sea, the rustling of the kite, the old crate Daniel had tried to make into a drum, and being inside the old tree stump listening to the rain and surf. " I guess we went on a listening walk" Maggie said.

"A listening walk?" Her mother asked.

Maggie reached over to the bedstand and picked up the shell from the beach. "Here mom. Hold this up to your ear and listen." Maggie said.

Her mother listened to the shell. "It sounds like the sea doesn't it." Maggie asked. "Yes, it does." Her mother replied.

"That's what we did on our walk mom. We listened."