Salt

The ground has changed, after hours of walking on the hard, dirt road, I feel that the ground has altered to trillions of minuscule stones, also, the air has turned thick with a strange tasting moisture, Eli tells me it is from the ‘salt’. Through my sweaty eyes I can see the end of the path, with a figure sitting there. A man is sitting on a rock exactly where I was looking, he is wrinkled from head to toe, with a bald head and a sad face, he looks strangely like Eli. He must see our nets because he is telling us to go back, “Please, leave, there is danger here, you must heed my warning, it is not safe to fish” I look into his eyes, I feel shock come upon me, goosebumps running down my spine, he looks serious, like he knows something horrible is about to happen, “Bourke, the sun has gone through his wrinkled skull and into his mind, We must go” Eli tells me. I look back at the man, he had disappeared I stop and stare at the rock, Eli pushes me onto a vast stretch of shifting white sand, the shock of the encounter leaves me as I look out into a never-ending body of liquid, I can feel the muscles in my face pull into a grin as I watch the white, foaming mountains of water raise then crash onto the shore. I run into the water, grasping my net, feeling the coolness of the water drain the heat out of my legs with a rush of pleasure. I don’t look back, but ahead, my gaze fixed on the glare of the sun off the glistening Adam’s Ale. I spot a streak of silver leap out of the water, a fish, at least as long as I am tall, swimming on the surface, enjoying the water as much as me. I try my hardest to chase it, it hasn’t noticed me yet. I leap onto it catching its tail in my net, my hands tangle into the rope along with the fish. It pulls me down into the depths. I feel my head prickle with the surprise, I can hear shouting, I’m not sure if it is in my mind or if it is Eli screaming from above the water. I look up at Eli through the water, he gets smaller and smaller until I can’t see him any more. My lungs scream at me to breath every muscle in my body relaxes, I suck down water and my vision blurs. I am now floating above the water staring down at where I last was. I see Eli dive to save me, but it’s too late. I blink, I see two distant figures walking towards me, holding nets, I realise where I am, My wrinkly hands are shaking. I try to warn them. I realise the wrinkled man I saw earlier looked not like Eli, but like Eli’s son. Me.

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