Daisy Doesn't Want To

Daisy and her Mum chose their spot on the sand.
They spread out their towels, and rubbed sunscreen on each other’s backs.

“Come on Daisy, walk along the beach with me.”
“I don’t want to,” said Daisy. “I want to lie on the sand, and watch the clouds go by.”
Daisy lay back on her striped towel, and looked up at the clouds, slowly puffing past.

“I’m going to look for sea anemones in the rock pools. Will you come with me?”
“I don’t want to,” said Daisy, turning over. “I want to look at grains of sand on the beach.”
She sorted the grains of sand into different colours. Some of the sand looked like tiny, broken shells.

Daisy’s Mum plomped herself down on her towel. She fanned her face with her hat.
“Phew, I'm hot. How about a swim?”
“I don’t want to,” said Daisy. She lay on her back, with her own hat over her eyes.
“I want to listen to the sounds of the beach.”

Daisy listened.

She heard the rolling and sighing of waves, the thin cries of sea-birds, and the soft whispers of the breeze in her ears.
She heard the shrieks of her Mum as she splashed about in the cold water.

Daisy walked down to the edge of the ocean.
She made jelly patches in the wet sand.

When Mum called, “Daisy, come and eat your lunch!” Daisy said,
“I don’t want to. I want to build a city of sand castles.”

“Oh dear. You’ve got to eat,” said Daisy’s Mum.

Daisy built tall, sandy towers.
She dug moats and canals for the tide to fill later.

“Time for off!” called Daisy’s Mum, shaking out her towel.
Daisy folded her stripy towel to just the right size for her beach-bag.

But then … “Daisy! Listen!”

Daisy listened. She heard tinkling music drifting across the sand dunes.

“I'm going to get an ice-cream. I don’t suppose you want to …?” asked Mum.
“Yes, I do want to!” laughed Daisy.
“Well, I don’t believe it!” said Mum.
“Come on, let’s get two really big ice-creams.”

So they did.