On the cobblestone walkway, on the pier, the individual perfectly beige stones each reminded her of a chocolate chip cookie. the same exact chocolate chip cookie she got whenever her parents would take her to that pier for a walk. they'd each hold one of her hands, and the cookie always tasted the same and unlike any other kind of chocolate chip cookie. those smells and textures are synonymous with gulls and the boats and the smell of the salt water and baked goods and all of the people who seemed big big big. inseparable from assurity that she would always live by the sea, that she'd always want to be near this faded pastel boardwalk next to the calm and bobbing ocean. it's always sunny on that pier in those memories, but never very hot and she's wearing shorts.

sometimes, after the pier, her parents would take her to this big park nearby that seemed to have endlessly rolling walkways that rollerskaters and cyclists would zip by on. that walkway had man made peaks and valleys, sometimes with tunnels that ran under the high parts to form a bridge. never to any practical end but these tunnels made great hiding places and habitats for make believe and some of them had sand and you could create little beaches with a Styrofoam cup of water. that same park was featured, once, in Charlie's angels, during a chase scene. she got really excited when she saw the familiar washed parallel vertical logs that lined the walkways and thought about that being her favorite place and how Sabrina, Kelly and Chris were there, RIGHT NOW, thwarting bad guys in short shorts and roller skates.

years and years and years later when someone at work handed her a cookie, it seemed almost obscene that this cookie would taste so similar to that other cookie.this ill placed nostalgic familiarity puts everything in a new hue for a few moments. stacks of binders and artificial light gone, clacking of the keyboard recessing behind the sounds of the birds, her mom's face young and so pretty and asking if she wanted a cookie again as she piled out of the car, looking with a smile at those sugary cobble stones.