“Mom. Mom. Come quick. I found treasure.”

 

Little Annie’s chubby fingers shovelled sand aside, slowly revealing the sparkling thing that had caught her eye. She’d wandered down the beach a short way, towards the rock pools, in search of crabs, when she’d spotted it, half-buried and gleaming in the sunshine.

 

She looked around eagerly, to see if her mom had come running. No, she was still sitting on her beach towel, eyes hidden behind dark glasses, smiling into her phone. She must not have heard her.

 

“It’s okay mom,” Annie called, turning back to the job at hand inadvertently knocking sand back into the hole as she did. “I’ll get it out.”

 

After more scrambling about Annie finally managed to clear enough space around it to get a good hold of the treasure. She gripped as tight as her little five-year-old hands would allow and, with a mighty wrench that knocked her backward onto her bottom, finally unearthed the object.

 

“Yes,” she cheered, proud of herself. “Woooow. Actual… real life treasure.”

 

Annie turned the object around to inspect it. It was a big silver tin, with little windows down one side, and it shone brightly. It was a bit like a drone. Her friend Hazel’s brother, Charlie, had one and it reminded her of it.

 

She held her eye up against the line of windows to try and get a real proper look inside.

 

Something moved in there and Annie dropped the treasure. It landed on the sand with a faint thud.

 

“I hope it’s not spiders. Or bugs,” she said quietly, building up the bravery to approach the tube again.

 

This time when she looked into the windows loads of tiny faces looked back at her. They looked like the astronaut toys that Charlie played with.

 

“Mom, mom, mom,” Annie called, running down the beach. “Come quick I found treasure. And there’s little men inside in it. Moving around. It might be a spaceship.”

 

Her mum put down the phone for a moment, lifted her sunglasses, and held out a hand for Annie to stop.

 

“No getting sand on my blanket,” she said. “Now tell me, what are you going on about.”

 

Annie took in a deep breath.

 

“In a calm voice,” her mother said sternly.

 

“There was a treasure in the sand. And I dug it out. And I think it’s a spaceship. And…”

 

Her mother held up a hand for silence, giving a look to where her daughter was pointing.

 

“It looks like someone left a toy behind. Annie, go put it back. It’s not yours.”

 

“But mom, I…”

 

“No ifs or buts darling. Now you go and put it back. Mommy needs to relax.”

 

Annie pouted, body slouched forward.

 

A little girl sigh escaped her lips. It was one where her whole body showed just how wounded she was by the situation. She trudged slowly back towards the rock pool, dragging her feet through the sand, making long furrows.

 

She knelt down beside the object, to give it one last look before knocking it back into the hole, when there was a whirring noise from inside. Then followed a flash and a hum and Annie moved away. Through the windows she could see the little men moving around really, really fast and red lights started to blink rapidly along the length of it.

 

A siren blared and the treasure began to lift up off the ground.

 

Annie watched wide-eyed and amazed as it spun slowly in the air and, just before it flew away, she saw the men waving at her from their window.