It was different. Early in the morning, the sun was beaming in the cloudless eastern sky. The world was bright: blues and greens; effervescent and orange from the sun. But the ever present dayglow of the islands struck him dimly today. It was all different. What was vibrant and wonderful was dulled. The sunlight on his face, The wind in his hair, The sea smells and cawing gulls, None of it was the same. Children playing and laughing on the playground, Teens racing across the boardwalk, Those sunning on the sands. They were all different, changed. It was sour, a bitter taste, A churning in his gut. The sun was too bright, The breeze and sea air stung. The children were loud, The gulls greedy and shrieking. The people were from elsewhere, And the teens had left too. Even the seclusion he sought was tainted. His little spot was too high, The jungles too dense and noisy. The solitude of his sound was incomplete. The warm sands did little, And the bright sun only beat down upon him. The ocean waves and mist were hollowed and foreign. Those distant boats were ponderous and just far enough away. Everything had lost its vivaciousness. The islands were greyer in spite of the glorious sun. They were no different from his room, the shutters closed for gentle darkness. The open doors and half-finished things left undone for him to dwell on. He marveled for some time on the change. In mind and through emotion, It was easy to get lost on the sound, His bastion of solitude known to only a few. But they did eventually find him, And although he sought isolation, He wasn’t sure if their company wasn’t wanted. Torn between both, he just stayed. What hadn’t changed was them: The closest of his friends, Those two he had shunned like everyone else. A pair of arms around his shoulders and a paw in his own remaining one. Slowly, the sky regained its colour, And the waves regained composure. The gulls were singing, the sea mist refreshing, And the breeze was soothing. In what seemed like hours, The three of them sat in silence. Together they marveled the calm of the ocean, The intensity of the sun forgotten. The salt no longer stung, The warm sands comforting, His two friends providing solace, Promising it wouldn’t change.