Competition Twenty-Two Highly Commended: Two Teardrops in a Tidal Wave by Eleanor Luke
You can’t keep doing this, you say. Your freshwater-voice revives me and the road comes into focus again. Luckily, it’s deserted at this hour, the tourists still sipping their cappuccinos beneath parasols. You’re too tired. Plus, you’re killing the planet with all this aimless driving. I tell you we are two teardrops in a tidal wave. It’s for Greta Thunberg to save the Earth, I say. You look at me sadly but when you spy the castle on the hill, a watercolour painted in shades of dawn and August, you let out a gasp of joy.
The gravel crunches beneath my trainers as you weave around the cypress trees standing guard beside the entrance. You don’t have to tell me where we’re going, you call. I already know! As we race to the lookout point at the foot of the bell tower, the scent of wild rosemary carries on the breeze. It reminds me of the nosegay you made me days before you died. For remembrance, you said, unaware you were casting a spell. Now all I do is remember.
We gaze at the lake below. At the grey mist hovering over the water like another lingering spirit. You shouldn’t be here today, you scold. It’s your day off. You should be drinking vermouth in the piazza with that woman from work. The ocean inside me surges. I’m not ready, I plead. Let me keep you a little longer!
So you rest your head on my shoulder and we recall Sundays spent counting sailboats. I tell you the story I wrote about the man who carried an ocean inside him. How he used alchemy to turn it into tears that fell whenever he remembered the wife he lost. Two teardrops in a tidal wave, you whisper as the alchemy begins.
Eleanor Luke lives in Spain with her husband, kids and a small menagerie. Words in FreeFlashFiction, FlashFlood, Retreat West. Longlist Reflex flash fiction, Five on the Fifth. Top ten Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2022. When not writing, Eleanor can be found eavesdropping on other people’s conversations.
Photo – Varenna – Castello di Vezio -Wikimedia Commons
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