Serialisation of ‘Waiting for a Hunter’s Moon’ by Simon Smith
II — Afterward
And so, peace is restored following last night’s events. Perhaps not restored, but put back in place, a place that is outwardly very similar but in an alignment that can never be exactly the same again, adding another little nuance to our ever-changing subtext. Whereas we kept our distance last night, we now walk hand-in-hand along the shore, losing ourselves amongst the dog walkers and joggers. Although the worst of the storm passed with the night, there is still a stiff breeze now, all of the other walkers tucking their chins down into collars and scarves in an effort to avoid its bite.
Occasionally they glance up hopefully, but see not much of interest aside from a frothy, grey-brown churning scum in place of the calm sea next to which they’d hoped to walk. Even the expected airy, in-flight lines of a black-backed gull appear twisted and bunched as it hunches over a washed-up pin whiting, ripping its way into the body through the gills. Bleached-out sanitary products lay limply where the tide slapped them onto the sand.
It repulses these people, this other face that’s always there but often hidden and hardly ever acknowledged; the schizophrenic flip-side that can cough up a horde of jellyfish or even, sometimes, a human being, with no more sentiment or thought than if they were carrier bags.
We walk on, content with the idea that this is how our little world has chosen to rearrange itself for now, foregoing the need to talk and instead listening — to what is familiar amongst the new — the surf, to the birds and the wind; listening and knowing that, although the days will always come again with new faces, they will always break and communicate what needs to be said with old, old voices.
Serialisation of ‘Waiting for a Hunter’s Moon’ by Simon Smith (with permission). This book is published by and can be purchased from Cambria Books HERE
