Summary

Leda has been on her vacation for about a week, and she notes that during the week the beach is less crowded and she listens to the many dialects spoken by others on the beach. When the weekend comes, the beach begins to fill up with people and all their gear, which seems to annoy Leda; she is "besieged by coolers, pails, shovels, plastic water wings and floats, racquets" (21). She gives up on working, with all the commotion around her, and searches the beach for Nina and Elena "as if they were a show, to help pass the time" (21).

Once she is able to locate them, Leda observes the mother and daughter closely, almost obsessively. She notes that Nina and the doll are lying on their stomachs on the sand, side by side, while Elena moves back and forth between the water and her...