2nd place in Derby #226: Math in Nature, with 813 votes!
The sand was first at the bottom of the sea, beside a stone to which it had become acquainted. “Hello, sand,” the stone would say each morning. “Hello, stone,” the sand would reply. And then they would sit, not talking (because that was the sort of friendship they had) and let the tide tease them to and fro.
One day the waters pulled back, leaving the sand dry and the stone exposed. Now they sat in the open air. It was all so new and unreasonable. But still, they had each other. “Hello, sand,” the stone would say. “Hello, stone,” the sand would reply. And they would enjoy the new type of tide the locals called wind.
Then came the day the two friends fell apart. Men came, the first with his bag and the second with his basket. One scooped up the sand and the other collected the stone. The friends were carried away in opposite directions. What could they do? What could they say? It wasn’t in their hearts to grumble. They just watched each other leave, and then, they were just alone.
The sand was heated and felt strange. The stone was carved down and felt smaller. The sand turned to glass, the stone decoratively painted. “If my friend could see me,” each thought, “would he even know who I was?”
A few weeks later the two met again in a toymaker’s workshop. Stone was a yellow swirl. Sand was a clear sphere. The toymaker fit them together for good, purely by chance… or was it destiny?
The two friends caught up as they sat connected on the toymaker’s shelf. They felt a new sense of purpose. In a few days someone picked them up and peered at the way they caught the light, then carried them home in a bag. That evening they fell, first through the tide of wind and then into the tide of water. And at last, once more, they rested together.
It made no difference that it was a fish tank instead of a sea. It made no difference how they’d changed with time. They were still the same two friends they always were, sitting quietly together.
“Hello, sand.” “Hello, stone.” And that was how they spent the rest of their days.
Wear this shirt: when you’re ready to make a big splash.
Don’t wear this shirt: if you feel like you’re sunk.
This shirt tells the world: “I’m out of my element, but I’m still lookin’ good.”
We call this color: Black Cat’s Eye
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