The sea breeze carried salt, damp, and coal smoke from the passenger ship, plastering your face layer upon layer like scorched spring roll wrappers.
On the first-floor deck, the noise of pounding dance music drowned out the temper of the waves, yet successfully provoked the passengers who preferred quiet into tempers of their own.
Down below, on the second-floor deck, men and women flirted together. Standing above them, you could hear how completely different their accents were, but that did not stop the men's hands from gradually wandering, nor the women from putting on coy displays of halfhearted resistance;
Even if they had been strolling the deck with their own husbands or wives a moment earlier, that did not stop them from finding their brief moments of true love now.
Kallen even noticed that, among the two couples to the north and south on the second-floor deck beneath him, the men and women exchanged knowing looks. This was true marital equality: everyone had someone to play with, and everyone was playing.
Turning around and closing his book,
He leaned back against the railing.
Kallen watched the seabird perched on the railing in front of him. Its pale blue feathers and proud neck, positioned directly in his view of the sunset, created a beauty reminiscent of an oil painting.
Then,
"Woof!"
Golden Retriever lunged over, startling the seabird into flight.
"Ah."
Kallen sighed and closed his eyes.
Golden Retriever sat before Kallen, his canine head tilted as he looked at his master in some confusion.
Nearby, Puer lay on a lifebuoy hanging on the wall and sighed.
"Even a dog with enhanced intelligence can't understand art."
Just then, a seabird landed in front of Puer.
"Meow!"
Puer pounced, swiping a few feathers off the seabird with one paw and frightening it