Caveat Emptor by Carol Caffrey
It wasn’t great weather for the beach but nil desperandum. One adapts. The tinkling from a buoy reminded me of ships’ bells and I immediately smelt blood. Memories. Top notes of rust and a long finish of tannin.
There was something exhilarating about being on the water again. Exhilare, from hilarare, to cheer. See hilarious. The action of rowing was soothing, a familiar dance between muscle and memory. Mass, velocity, effort, drag; no need for the physics of propulsion when the unconscious took over. There wouldn’t be anyone else would out on a day like this. O tempora, o mores. People were such delicate creatures nowadays.
Take the woman weeping in the stern. No gumption, if you ask me. She reminded me of Maisie Ratcliffe, she of the permanent head-lice infestations. I hadn’t thought of Ratty Ratcliffe in years. I should have felt sorry for her back then, I suppose, like the rest of the girls but I was never like the rest of them. Besides, I was the one who had to sit beside her for Double Latin. She thought I was her friend. She’d made a right mess on the train tracks.
The sea was getting choppier. The woman tried to get up and almost upended us. Fool. A quick slap to the head with a spar the careless boat owner had left on board quietened her. That, and the sleeping tablets she had inadvertently taken in the coffee I’d bought her. There was some resistance when I went to throw her over the side. Who would have thought she’d have any fight left in her? I would have to ensure that she sank, however. My original plan of scuttling the boat with her on board had to be abandoned when the weather turned. Not a day for swimming the few miles back to shore, even for me, even though I was still in good shape for my age. Mens sana in corpore sano and all that.
There were surprisingly few ripples as she went under. Much like the impression she’d made in life, I gather. The owner would miss his anchor.
Carol Caffrey is an Irish writer and actor. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Lunch Ticket, Poetry Ireland Review and the Fish Anthology. She won the inaugural Blake-Jones Review Flash Fiction competition and the NAWG 100-word contest. Her debut poetry chapbook, The Untethered Space, was published by 4Word Press in 2020.
Facebook – Carol Caffrey Witherow
Read Still Life by Carol Caffrey in the galwayreview.com
Photo “Magic Light” by Dick Keely – see more work by Dick Keely – www.photokeely.com
SUBMIT / MAILING LIST / COMPETITION / CRITIQUE SERVICE / BOOKSHOP / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM / DONATE / FLASH FICTION
*
Tags: