Pete was half way up the steps with his motorbike helmet tucked under his arm. He glanced back and waited for Jen. Jen struggled with the chinstrap on her helmet and he moved back to her and unfastened it. Jen lifted the helmet off and self-consciously touched her hair. Pete leaned close and whispered in her ear, Jen blushed and Pete grinned.
Day Twenty-Six: Seeing
Flood Part Twenty-Two
“I can barely hear you above the rotors dear…these headsets aren’t easy!”
“LOOK BELOW…”
“I got that! You don’t have to point…or shout!”
Below the scenery was breath-taking. The landscape, known and loved, was gone, vanquished by the ocean in an almost endless expanse of water. The wooded headland jutted out, a high point on the brand new coast, but the newly-formed ocean spread wide leaving only small pockets of green; small islands in a sea of blue.
The helicopter’s rotors clacked, trees bent in broken submission, the little boat bobbed below and unspoken words fell as tears…
(99 Words)
Day Twenty-Five: Blue
Flood Part Twenty-One
“Look at the sky dear…”
“Beautiful blue isn’t it?”
“No, I mean up in the sky…”
“Later, will you help me with the anchor? I think we should drop anchor, there’s no point drifting anymore. If we wait long enough…the water will go down enough for us to actually be on land…”
“No, look! Listen!”
Gulls squawked and the ocean lapped, and a distant rotary hum broke the monotony.
“Is that..?”
“It is! It is! Look…up there, look!”
“You’re kidding me! Shout! Wave your arms, SCREAM!”
“I AM, I AM! Hey, Hey, WE’RE HERE, DOWN HERE!”
“Rescue…at last”
(99 Words)
Day Twenty-Three: Cooking
Flood Part Nineteen
“For the love of a dove! I can’t believe it! Honey, kiss me again!”
“Love you darling, I knew things would work out!”
“We’re cooking with gas now!”
“Oooh, I wish we were…bet you’d like that steak now!”
“Food…no more fish…”
“Now I’m drooling, I know that’s not attractive, but I am!”
“Sooo hungry. What are you looking so worried about now sweetheart?”
“Well, we don’t know how high the water rose, we don’t know what we’re going to find on land…”
“Well, that seagull on those rocks over there…that’ll do…”
“Tell me you wouldn’t eat your dove?”
“I would!”
(100 Words)
Day Twenty-Two: On Holiday
Flood Part Eighteen
“You know that feeling? You know the one when you finally see your holiday destination in the distance? That’s it…that’s the feeling. Sweetheart, look over there…this time I know it’s land, there’s nothing else that can be. We’re there, here…look!”
“Wooooah! Don’t drop me! Wow…it really is, it’s really there…land at last!”
“You okay? You cold? You’re shivering.”
“Not cold, just a bit scared…”
“Wipe that tear away, it’s finally over…”
“I know…I know, but I’m still scared at what we’re going to find…”
“It doesn’t matter what we find.”
“And look…right on the horizon…your dove dear! There’s your dove!”
(99 Words)
Day Twenty-One: Night
Flood Part Seventeen
“Hope runs eternal…”
“‘Springs eternal’ dear. Alexander Pope.”
“Who? Don’t sigh…”
“‘Hope springs eternal in the human breast; man never is, but always…blest. The soul, uneasy, and confined from home, rests and…’ can’t remember the word… ‘in a life to come.’”
“By who?”
“Alexander Pope, an eighteenth century poet. You’re right, hope springs eternal…if the water’s going down we have hope, at last!”
“Come here sweetheart, snuggle closer…”
“Oooh, hope is definitely springing eternal!”
“Give us a kiss!”
Indigo night enveloped the little boat bobbing and drifting on the water and unabashed moonlight streamed in, uninvited, through the tiny porthole.
(100 Words)
The streets were bare, not even a fearless cat stalked the highway of fences and walls that stretched across town. Nobody peered through windows but instead hid behind a heavy curtain or beneath a duvet’s shroud.
The moon struggled to shine through the dense cloud and even candles fought to stay alight in the damp, cold gloom.
Night had fallen, days ago, her velvet indigo stretching her blanket across the world and the talk, the wonder, the fascination with the unusual was now gone replaced by quiet fear.
Night’s talons now pinned the earth in its place and she had no intentions of letting go…
The Last Krystallos 