The lightship pictured is on the marshes, landlocked and redundant as a provider of maritime safety. On a sunny day, with the tide out, it can look rather odd. However,on a misty night, it can still shine out, a glimmer of light in the gloom.
Here is a story about the lightship offering hope and prviding safe passage, even whilst it is landlocked.
“What use is it?” the woman asked. Her voice was loud and scornful. “Why is it even here?”
Brad eased past the crowd of walkers who were standing in a knot, all but blocking his passage along the sea wall. He was trying not to take the bait.
If he could have summoned the patience, he would have told the woman about that fateful night. It was a night that was his and his alone.
Only he could remember the mist and the cold. The experience of being lost and alone on the marshes was a trial he had faced by himself. Only his dreams were haunted by that awful night.
It was his hope alone which seeped into the mud, seemingly never to be seen again. They were his tears which had fallen onto the samphire. It had been his feet failing to find purchase on the narrow plant bridges. It had been his desolation and his wretched sadness when he had fallen into the greedy, cloying mud.
Only his heart had swelled with renewed hope when he had seen the proud light piercing the mist. When he had embraced the cold, solid steel, only his will to live had been restored.
The walkers might have been on the sea wall to visit the lightship but only he was there because of it.
The landlocked vessel still saved lives.
Brad knew exactly why it was there.
It is a new collection of short-form fiction, two novellas, some short stories and flash fiction await the reader. Between them, they deal with disparate themes but are always written with a love of singular characters and quirky plots.
Estuary Tales 