What a wonderful creative shot, full of subtle empathy and poignancy. For all the "things unsaid" but cleverly hinted at in this picture a "10" is fully deserved, in my humble opinion.
I like it, the composition is real good and the patterns in the sand are interesting too. I do think the whites could be whiter though, which is easy to do with an image editor. Overall it’s very well done and a photo to be proud of.