Between the tides

Toes in the sea, heels on land, she watches the horizon curve, flat grey sliding below flat grey, emptiness.

A step forward, wondering if she’d take another, taking two. Knee deep, feet unseen and sinking. Her skirts rise around her as she counts to seven and everything below her waist is water. Nine and ten and the cold rises to her heart. Left hand to right shoulder, right hand to left, holding herself, ready.

Sighing her breath away into air, she hears song, looks back.

A lad writes a line along the shore, he’s seeing her, waving his cap, calling to her. She’s drawn, away and toward. A gull laughs, another too. She waves back.

First published in Ad Hoc Fiction