When it's all burning
The wind coming off the ocean snapped the jacket around my waist. For a winter's day, the air felt balmy as if the sea had just directed an exasperated sigh towards the shore. It lifted my mood only slightly as I rounded the point to my destination- a cove hidden by bushland and rocks. I dug my feet into the sand and stood there for a moment, staring out at the protected patch of water, barely a ripple breaking the glassy surface. I walked to a rockpool on the other side of the cove and stared down into it with a grim recognition.
His milky eyes stared back at me.
I tossed a pebble into the rockpool and watched it wobble its way deeper til it landed on his neck. We used to skim rocks across the water here. I picked up a larger stone. As if to encourage this action, another warm breath rushed up off the water and met me with surprising gusto. Do it. it seemed to say. So I did. One rock at a time until there was nothing left of his bloated body. Just a pile of rocks in a rockpool, hidden from the world by a screen of trees. Nobody comes here, he said one day, right before he pulled me down into the sand and slid his hand up my shirt. This can be our little secret.
Our little secret. That's what you thought, didn't you, Father Flanahan?
His milky eyes stared back at me.
I tossed a pebble into the rockpool and watched it wobble its way deeper til it landed on his neck. We used to skim rocks across the water here. I picked up a larger stone. As if to encourage this action, another warm breath rushed up off the water and met me with surprising gusto. Do it. it seemed to say. So I did. One rock at a time until there was nothing left of his bloated body. Just a pile of rocks in a rockpool, hidden from the world by a screen of trees. Nobody comes here, he said one day, right before he pulled me down into the sand and slid his hand up my shirt. This can be our little secret.
Our little secret. That's what you thought, didn't you, Father Flanahan?