They had arrived at the beach at about midday. As soon as they arrived the two Johnson kids unlocked their door and rushed out. Their parent made their way out of the car but not with as much haste as the children. The beach was covered in sand that was as white as snow. It had the odd bit of rubbish lying around, but everything else was perfect. They unpacked the brown woven picnic basket from the back of the car and retrieved a couple of towels. One was had an image of Barbie and the other, Action Man.
They started trudging towards the beach. When they reached it the two Johnson kids ran off. “Don’t go too far,” shouted their father. The sand felt warm on their feet as if it had a heater under it. Your feet would slowly submerge into the sand; one could feel the sand grains sliding the toes of your feet. The family kept trudging on toward an area where they could lay out their towels and start their picnic. The beach was full of kids playing with Frisbees, dads and mums lying down attempting to get a sun tan, and the odd parent lying down while being covered head to toe in sand by their kids.
They found a place to start their picnic. The kids who had run off had joined the family again. They all set out the picnic on the sand and then sat down. Mrs Johnson opened the picnic hamper to unveil lots of scrumptious food. There was chicken sandwiches, crisps and jelly. The kids began to lick their lips in hunger.
“What do you want kids, there’s chicken or ham sandwiches?” asked Mrs Johnson.
“I’ll have the chicken, mum,” said John.
“I’ll have the sandwiches if they are strawberry jam,” said Jennifer. Jennifer loved strawberry jam sandwiches. Her mum took out a zip’n’seal bag which contained four jam sandwiches. She also took out a bag of fried chicken which made John’s stomach make a low rumble. As soon as she put the food on their plates, the kids turned into wild animals. Food was flying everywhere. Within 10 minutes the kids had scoffed down all their food not leaving single crumb on their plate but loads on the floor.
“Mum can we go and play in the sea?” John asked. He waited anxiously for the answer.
“Ok, but don’t go too far,” she said with a smile on her face. Mr and Mrs Johnson were still eating their lunch which was ham sandwiches with a small green salad on the side. Once they had finished Mr Johnson got up and went over to where his son was playing, leaving his wife to clean up the mess. She started by putting all hot plates in a plastic bag and then she started to put all the food away. She then went over to her daughter and started to help her make her sandcastle. When she arrived the sandcastle was more like a pile of sand that had just been put there, so she decided to re-model it to make it more like a castle. Her husband on the other hand was busy being buried in the sand by his son. His feet and head were the only part of the body that you could see of his.
Later on that day they all decided to go in the sea to go swimming, the sea was a beautiful blue colour with the hint of green. You could hear the waves clapping against the nearby cliffs. They all got changes. Mr Johnson was now fashioning a very peculiar multi-coloured Speedo swimming costume. Mrs Johnson on the other hand looked like she had just come out of a 60’s shop with a multi-coloured suit on. On the other hand their kids looked like they had the fashion sense. John was wearing a simple light blue pair of shorts. Jennifer was wearing a bathing suit coloured in baby pink with purple dots. Once they had all come out of the changing rooms, they all made their way to the sea. John didn’t know how to swim yet so he had to wear yellow luminous bands around his small arms. Jennifer on the other hand had had swimming lessons from the age of 4. She loved swimming, and loved to have races she would win every race well ahead of her opponents, she was very competitive.
They raced towards the sea excitedly, the father picking up a ball on his way. The ball this was soon involved in a high powered game of catch. The ball was easily noticeable as it was a large red and white beach ball. The game was quick and quite easy as they were only throwing the ball through the air to each other, like a parasol soaring through the air. John enjoyed the game the most as he enjoyed playing games like catch, he took part in many sports like cricket, soft ball and he played in goal for his local football team, Wilsdon Rangers. John and Jennifer were much different from their parents as they were not very athletic, as you could see form their rather robust figures.
They were in the middle of their game when a very frantic man came running up to them. While trying to catch his breath the man muttered the words “Have you seen my son? He was with me a minute ago, and then I turned around the next thing I know he’s disappeared. PLEASE HELP ME! I HAVE TO FIND HIM!” The man who was now breathing unsteadily was begging for help. Mr and Mrs Johnson gave each over stern looks then took a quick glance at their kids, then turned to the man and answered,
“Yes, we’ll help. Kids we need you to stay here, we’ll be back soon so don’t worry. Oh we’ll need a picture of your son so that we can recognise him.”
The man was now filing through his wallet looking for a picture of his son. He found one in between a twenty pound note and a voucher from B&Q.
“Here, his name is Liam, he’s 7. He was wearing a light blue t-shirt and red shorts. We’ll have to take separate ways, I’ll go this way and you can go that way.” The man said while pointing in two opposite directions. Mr and Mrs Johnson hugged their kids then turned and made their way in the opposite direction of the man. They had only got 10 metres away from their children when a man walked up to them with a serious and anxious face.
He was quite short and had ginger hair. He was wearing a black t-shirt that had local police written on it. He approached the Johnson’s who were very startled.
“Excuse me, can I have a word please?” he said while still approaching them. “I’m from the local police force, we were given an anonymous tip that the Wilsdon Kidnapper is here on this beach. He’s telling parents that he’s lost a child and whether they can help look for the child. When they do help, he snatches their kids. Here’s a picture of him.” He handed over a picture of a man exactly like the man they had just met. Mr and Mrs Johnson’s hearts started thumping fast as they realised who the man with the lost kid truly was. They felt their bodies fill up with fear and dread. Mr Johnson was now sweating more then anything while Mrs Johnson had broken down into tears.
“We’ve seen him, he was right over there.” Said Mr Johnson, while turning ever so slowly, “Right over there,” now pointing at the place where his kids were standing before they left them. Mrs Johnson suddenly fell to the ground screaming,
“HE”S TAKEN MY KIDS, HE”S TAKEN MY KIDS. SOMEBODY HELP ME!”
The father bent down low and embraced his wife and they sat there sobbing together, while the sand glued itself onto their clothes.
