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:
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A life on the ocean waves! Hopefully “she” has come to terms with his first love.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is just splendid in voice… drunk as a lobsterman’s payday…
LikeLiked by 2 people
I thought that too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s such a thing as over-confidence. Always misplaced on water, I’ve found. Good one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Magnificent. Love the strange-eyed fish.
I’m not sure how these two feel about each other.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Goosebumps . . . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Karen,
She’s a realist. He’s not. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tragic tale, well written.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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?)
LikeLike