Overcome
I clambered up the dune, the hardened surface layer crumbling underfoot and slowly sloughing downhill in cascades of warm desert sand. At the top, I followed a narrow sandy path between patches of sharp black volcanic cinders and dried thorny scrub until I reached my favourite spot right at the edge of the pitch-black lava cliff that contrasted so sharply with the white sand below.
From up here, I could see my parents and █████ at the foot of the bluff, stretched out on their beach sheet, basking in the sun, absorbed in their reading. As always, the whole scene looked almost unreal: the bright blue sky, the turquoise Atlantic stretching to the horizon, and below, the endless white beach set in stark contrast against the black volcanic landscape. God, how I have always loved this place.
I hit play on my Walkman and let the low-slung trip-hop beat of Tricky’s "Overcome" lumber into my consciousness, its ghostly string loop drenching me in seductive melancholia. Steeped in indefinable teenage emotions, I took in the whole moment, my mind gently drifting between all the childhood memories tied to this place, the beauty of the here and now, and the endless possibilities of what was still to come. It felt like a timeless moment, both eternal and already slipping away. Some part of me accepted that even something which had once seemed infinite would come to an end: the age of blissful childhood holidays with the family.