Just a Skiff

 

PHOTO PROMPT © Georgia Koch

PHOTO PROMPT © Georgia Koch

 

He learned to crab before he learned to walk. Always told that story: him and his dad coming all the way back from Green Turtle in full gale on that skiff—him only ten and his pop drunk as a lobsterman’s payday.

Today the air was sinking fast, dropping clouds low on eastern skies.

“I’ll be home by high tide,” he’d said. But tide had come and gone, leaving a line of seagrass high on the beach dotted with strange-eyed fish.

“I was born on the water,” he always said.

He was going to die on it too, she realized.

This has been an edition of the Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle Wisoff Fields. To read more stories or to submit your own, click the blue froggy button:

13 Comments

  1. You’ve got me wondering about those “strange-eyed” fish.
    Sometimes we get a little too comfortable in our own ability. Nature has a way of humbling man. Great story, Karen.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. A life on the ocean waves! Hopefully “she” has come to terms with his first love.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. This is just splendid in voice… drunk as a lobsterman’s payday…

    Liked by 2 people

  4. He was going to die on it too, she realized.

    are “He was going to die on it too” her words or thoughts? if so, she would say/think them in present tense, so it would be better to write “He is” instead of “was.”

    also consider that because he said “I was born on the water…” she should say/think “You’re going to die on it…”

    well done.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. There’s such a thing as over-confidence. Always misplaced on water, I’ve found. Good one.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. peterkirsch

    Magnificent. Love the strange-eyed fish.
    I’m not sure how these two feel about each other.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. My favorite flash this week. The relationships with the sea were very clear and all of the characters seemed to understand their roles. He was destined to die at sea and she was destined to wait for his return every day. Well done.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. lillmcgill

    Goosebumps . . . .

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Dear Karen,

    She’s a realist. He’s not. Well done.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Tragic tale, well written.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. I love ‘dropping clouds low on eastern skies.’
    He may yet come home.
    (‘She realized that he was going to die on it too’ is correct and therefore your more appealing form of this sentence can also be considered to be in the correct tense?)

    Like

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