Gerald

“Time does not exist for the island that the conquerors missed.

If you walk the wrong way around the island quickly enough, time will turn backwards.

But I could never make it. At a brisk pace, the frail bones of my shins would pinch; my body was not meant to move that way. Whenever I made it past the needle rock, the one at the top of the island’s strange hill, I would collapse. My ruined body crumpled in the ancient grass, the damp, salty air stinging my cheeks and lips, tasting of forgotten sea shanties sung by dead sailors whose bodies sink, still, somewhere, not too far from here.

Today, I meandered across the rocks and craggy cliffs, passing the home of the prehistoric petrel, whose beak is hooked like the pterodactyl’s; the albatross, wider than waves; the mischievous skua, claiming the carcasses of her siblings from the sand. When summer returns, the king penguins will roar back, covering the beach like burnt breadcrumbs under melted butter.

Today, like every day, I found myself drawn to the sand. I sat. I waited. I watched the waves and listened to the language of the sea.

What else was there to do when my tasks were complete?

Beneath that chorus was the dull ringing of windchimes, mildly muffled by the bellow of waves assaulting the sand. I noticed how long it had been since I’d noticed that eldritch melody.

The routine fractured.

I saw something far out in the water.”
― Christy Anne Jones, The Mercy of Sea Foam