The Longest Second

• Emily Duncombe, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2009

The ocean swelled, bobbing my boat as I waited for time to pass. The ocean is the only reprieve from the torture on land. I looked into to the glassy water, thinking about fish. The last fish was long gone, eaten in a Japanese restaurant; bones were the only remains of the once glorious creature. The ocean is empty now as I sit, thinking, waiting. I still throw a line over now and again, old habits never die. Grabbing the rod in two hands, I slowly doze off into the depths of my mind.
I am suddenly jerked awake by an ice cold wind wrapping around me like a tornado. The sky is pitch black, like a burnt out fire. The city lights are like fireflies, until pollution got to them.
Hugging my charity claimed jumper closer to my body I prepare for the long drive home, when my rod dips, then struggles hard. A sudden adrenalin rush surges through me, blasting my heart ‘till it threatens to stop. My numb hands find the reel and I turn it over and over again, my mind racing with a thousand thoughts a second. I look down into the dark water, hoping beyond hope it is what it is. With a sudden burst of speed on my part, the fish flies through the water and lands with a bang on the bottom of my tinnie. The silver fish lies gasping for air as I take it all in, too stunned to move, too stunned to even breathe. Possibly the last fish in the entire world is in my boat. If I take him back, he will be subjected to life in a pool with nothing but the four walls that imprisoning him to stare at. But I would be rich, beyond my wildest dreams. Any thing I would want I could own. If only we had listened, acted sooner; could this have been prevented? If so, I wouldn’t be making the biggest decision of my wretched life. On impulse, I pick up the fish and there, in his deep eyes is the answer. Why should we, humans, dictate someone else’s life; we can’t even manage our own. I lean over the side and let him go. Mesmerised I let him slip through my fingers, as I sit, thinking, waiting.