To See and to Turn to Stone

We were late for this sunrise. A good photographer has it all timed to the minute - when the sun rises, when to get up, when to leave, so you can plant the tripod early, look around, breathe out and... It's all worked out. So we set off right on schedule. But the sunrise had already begun. No, the sun didn't let us down - the sun rises on schedule. It was the sky that flared up early. We'd barely pulled away, and it was already red - burning, blazing. We drive and stare: what beauty! what fire! And still half an hour to go. We won't make it. How much longer? Twenty minutes! We won't make it. It's about to end. Ten. We won't make it... We're there. Run! From the parking lot to the boulders themselves it's another ten minutes at an easy stroll. But we tore down the beach at a run. With tripods. With backpacks. Overtaking each other, stumbling, gasping for air. And the sunrise kept burning - as if teasing us. There they are - huge stone spheres on the sand. Smooth, round, so perfect you can't believe nature made them. Long ago the trolls came up out of the sea to watch a sunrise. They looked... And like us - turned to stone from the beauty of it.