4/6/2023 0 Comments The midnight wave![]() Tom eyed the kid with the surfboard, furrowing his wrinkled brow. Tom made a mental note to have a stern chat with Greg over at the Sand and Sunray Post Office, along with an informal talk with two members of the local county council just for good measure. Tom was the upper end of sixty, but stepped across to block the surfer’s path with the spry footwork of a man thirty years younger on hot coals. The surfer tried to pass by Tom, who moved across with frightening agility. Nah, I’m sorry, man, but I just wanna catch a quick wave or two.” “Hey, you must be the guy that the shopkeeper told me about. On the front of it was a crudely drawn surfboard underneath a large painted “X.” Tom stoically pointed to a large four-foot high picket sign. The surfer at the front with a bobbing crop of bleach blond hair ran straight into him. The grey skies, cold frosty winds and gentle patter of rain did little to stop him.Īt seven, the first batch of surfers arrived, with crew cuts, shark tooth necklaces, and radioactive yellow surfboards with “Walls Ice Cream” stenciled on the front. The tide had died down to a consistent watery thrum as Tom made his way across the beach. He wasn’t asleep, but in a conscious/unconscious haze. Tom’s alarm started buzzing at five-thirty. Tom’s last thoughts as he climbed into his bed were that if he were to get through it all, he’d only be able to do it by fiddling with the padlock of an empty and silent house, remembering what once was. It was only after he’d gone that he wished he’d hugged Jake more so much more, in fact.īut there was that phrase, Tom thought as he felt the first warm trail begin to make its way down his face, about locking the stable after the horses had bolted.Īs Tom did what he’d hoped not to and broke down next to his son who’d started wailing again, he wondered how he was going to see tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Tom thought of his oldest son and his eyes stung. Little Daniel nuzzled further into Tom’s leg as Tom held his son closer. ![]() Little Daniel flinched for a second before recognising his father and burying his head into the right leg of his pyjama bottoms. He put his arm around his youngest son and patted his shoulder. Not until life went on, or until life was okay or acceptable, but how long it was until it merely continued. He wondered groggily how many more sleepless nights there would be before life continued. Tom briefly wondered how many more episodes of night terrors that Little Daniel was going to have. His screams had abated, but he was letting out the soft and low moan of a trapped animal. Little Daniel was at the window, tears streaming down his hot and puffy face as he pounded on the window with his little pink palms. He flicked on the light by the bedside table and wandered across the floorboards that felt like ice under his old and calloused feet. Nothing seemed to matter since Jake had been stolen by the sea. Even after a year had passed, sleep still eluded him.Įven if he couldn’t for another sleep for another year, for another ten or even fifteen, it didn’t seem to matter. II.Ī voice screamed from the other room and Tom Hathaway sat up. Urban legends didn’t take your oldest son from you. Most folks dismissed it as an urban legend, but Tom always scoffed at them. Nothing was above an evil that rose from the depths of the water, when the moon was full, as the clock struck twelve. Nothing stood higher than the midnight wave. But oh, you could see it if you knew how to. Tom always saw it.Īt midnight, on the dot, the crystalline wave rose out of the sea. Even with the beam of the lighthouse, you’d struggle to see it. And then beyond, to where the reckless and foolhardy would turn back. ![]() No, it was further than that, right out to where only the reckless and foolhardy would go. ![]() Far beyond the Paulo Lighthouse, a tidal flow wound its way, in a hundred tiny aquatic arcs towards the bay.
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