i met a dog and boy at the beach. the boy was looking at his device while his dog was looking at me. finally the boy looked at me not quite friendly. i ask is your dog friendly. he says he's shy, like me. i say that's fine, that's ok, shy's good with me. i say i'm not wanting to intrude, i just want to get in that lake. yesterday i tried but it was too wild. he looked at me now like a crazy loon, says it's too cold. i ask the dogs name, pluto, 4th planet, (not the cartoon dog then). i get in between waves, it's still rather wild. the dog pluto stares at me like crazy loon, stares the whole time and his human stares into his hand device like the void of interstellar space, or a donut portal through spacetime to another dimension. then he leaves, they leave, before i can intrude again, and pluto tries to leap on the wall and falls back. before i get to shore they're gone, without a wave or parting glance. i'm shy too, and curious about shy people. no one is left so i take pictures of me and the exposed roots of trees and water.