Once upon a time, an old sculptor lived in the town of Corfu. Although he worked all day and made beautiful sculptures, he was very poor, because no one wanted to buy his sculptures. So he broke everything, and decided to go to the beach, build a sand hut, and stay there, away from people for the rest of his life. The sand hut he built was very beautiful, like an old castle. But, unfortunately, when morning came, the tide rose and tore the hut down , leaving the old sculptor without a roof over his head.

 

"No problem, I'll build another hut" said the old sculptor.

 

And so he did, he built another sand hut, a bigger one with thicker walls. But, when morning came, the tide rose again and tore the hut down. Then a voice, like a whispering wind, said, "Every night you will build it, and every morning I will tear it down."

 

"Who are you, why are you destroying my house?" said the old sculptor.

 

"I am the Lord of the Tides," said the voice, "and I am destroying your house, for I am alone, and very sad, and have nothing else to do. If I had a friend, someone I could talk to, I would leave you alone for the rest of your life."

 

"All right, since you're lonely and sad, I'll make you a friend," said the old sculptor, "one you can talk to," and he picked up a sack full of sand, and made a statue.

 

He wanted to make it a girl, so he gave it long hair made of seaweed, a thin body and eyes like pearls. But when he finished, he saw that it was really a boy.

 

“I tried to make a girl and it turned into a boy; now it’s too late to tear it down and make it again. Let it stay as it is,” said the old sculptor, and he tore down the suck, and made clothes for the sand boy. Then he went into his hut and fell asleep.

 

When night fell, the Lord of the Tides rose, and surrounded the sand statue, but he did not touch it.

 

“You are so beautiful that I am afraid to touch you. But you cannot yet speak to me, for you are not alive. I will put a red coral on your chest, so that you can come to life,” said The Lord of the Tides, and he took a red coral from the bottom of the sea and put it on the sand boy’s chest. Then he poured some water on him, and the sand boy came to life. They stayed together all night, and when morning came, the Lord of the Tides retreated deep into the sea. When night fell, he rose again to meet his friend.

 

“Oh, my beloved Lord of the Tides. How much I love you. If I could only see your face, I would be so happy,” said the sand boy.

 

“Wait until morning, after my tide has retreated, and you will see my face,” said the Lord of the Tides.

 

The sand boy waited all night, and when morning came and the tide had retreated, he saw a face painted in the sand. It was a young boy just like him.

“Oh, my beautiful Lord of the Tides, how I would like to kiss you,” said the sand boy.

 

“I would like to kiss you too, sand boy,” said the Lord of the Tides, “but I am not a human, and you are not a human either. Only humans can kiss each other, for they have bodies of flesh, and we do not. For this reason, we live separated from each other.”

 

“I love you so much, and I don’t want us to live apart. I want us to be human , so we can kiss,” said the sand boy.

 

 “If you really want me, you must cut the red coral from your chest,” said the Lord of the Tides, “Then you will be transformed into a human. Once that happens, plant the red coral in the sand, and I will come and water it every night. As soon as it is big enough, the red coral will open up, and I will come out of it like a human of flesh. But, before you do it, I must warn you, boy, that once you become a human, your lips will turn to stone. You will not be able to kiss any other human until we meet again.”

 

“All right,” said the sand boy, “I will become a human and wait for you. I’ll wait for you as long as it takes. I don’t want to lose you.”

 So he cut the red coral from his chest, and at once he was transformed into a human, and his lips turned to stone. Then he planted the red coral in the sand and left to find something to eat. Every night, the Lord of the Tides would come ashore and water the red coral. The red coral grew and became as big as a tree. One day the sand boy, now human, returned to the beach, and looked for the red coral, but found it old and impoverished. Near it, he saw another boy, his age. His clothes were made of pieces of old sacks, like those of the sand boy. His hair was red. The Sand Boy tried to talk to him, but because his lips were stony, he could not speak. So he began to write in the sand.

 

The red-haired boy saw him, approached him, and read the words, “Are you the Lord of the Tides I have been waiting for?” Then he smiled and wrote these words in the sand: “Yes, I am the Lord of the Tides, and I have been waiting for you,” and he kissed the boy of sand, and his lips of stone became lips of flesh.

 

“Now that we are both human, we will be happy forever,” said the Lord of the Tides, and took the sand boy from his hand, and they went to mingle with the rest of the humans.

 

The humans world was beautiful, and they were surprised at it. The buildings, the cars, the lights, the toys, and the food. Everything was so amazing. Because they were still wearing clothes from sacks, they decided to go into a clothing store and buy new ones. When the clothes merchant asked them for money, the Lord of the Tides gave him golden coins.

 

Where did you get all these golden coins, boys,” said the clothes merchant, a tall guy with a bald head and red eyes.

 

“Under the sea, there are tons of golden coins,” said the Lord of the Tides, “I have been collecting them and making necklaces with them.”

 

The merchant looked at him suspiciously. The sand boy got scared, and pulled The Lord of the Tides out, while the merchant picked up the phone to call someone. As they walked through a park, suddenly, they saw a fountain, with stone statues, and stood in front of it, remembering what the two of them had once been like. They were so happy that they were now human. Then they kissed. When the other humans saw these two boys kissing, they became very angry.

 

“What a sin,” said the other humans, “two boys kissing. No, we cannot accept it. Arrest them, throw them in jail.”

 

The boys were frightened and fled, followed by a huge crowd.

 

“If they catch us, they will surely kill us. We must find shelter. Let’s knock on a door, someone will help us,” said the sand boy.

 

So they knocked on every door, but none of them opened. Finally, they came to the old hut where the old sculptor lived. They knocked, and the old sculptor opened the door.

 

“Good evening, sir,” said the Lord of the Tides.

 

“Good evening, boys,” said the old sculptor, “why are you running in the middle of the night?

 

“We run because the world is chasing us. Please let us in.”

 

The old sculptor, who at first had no idea who the two boys were, now recognized them. He let them in and they told him the whole story.

 

“I will give you shelter for the night,” said the old sculptor, “but be careful not to kiss each other until tomorrow . If you keep your promise, one of you will turn into a girl. That way, when the other people come here in the morning, they will see that you are not the ones they are looking for, and they will not kill you. But, if you kiss, you will turn back into sand and water, and you will not be able to become human again.”

 

The boys promised him that they would not kiss until morning, and they fell asleep in two separate beds. When midnight came, the men approached and surrounded the sand hut with torches and guns. The old sculptor came out to talk to them. A tremendous noise started out there.

 

“We want to search your hut. We want to find the two boys who kissed,” said the angry mob.

 

“There is no one else in my hut but me,” said the old sculptor.

 

“No,” they said, “you are lying. We know the two boys are in there, for we have searched all the houses, and we have not found them. There are no other houses left but yours. Now go away, and let us in.”

 

The sand boy recognized the voice of the clothes merchant. He rose to his feet and approached the Lord of the Tides.

 

“We are not made for this world,” he said, “They will never accept us as we are. Let’s kiss for one last time, and go back to where we came from”.

 

“So this is our last kiss before our collapse. Goodbye my love, goodbye forever,” said the Lord of the Tides, and kissed the sand boy.

 

Immediately afterwards they both melted, and became sand and water again. The sand hut melted too, and fell on the heads of the men who had just entered it. Protesting against the sand, which had gotten into their ears and eyes, they fled, cursing each other. Only the old sculptor remained on the beach. Since he now had no house, he decided to build another one. When night fell, the tide rose again and surrounded the hut, but did not touch it. In the morning, the sculptor went out and saw two faces painted in the sand. The old sculptor approached and recognized them. They were the Sand Boy and the Lord of the Tides. Around them, red corals had been planted in the sand. So many corals, and so beautiful, that the old sculptor had never seen in all his life.