We’re going on a boat ride, I tell the kids early that morning. They’re excited as I bundle them up in warm clothes, hurry them away from the stench of the campsite. I try to make it a game, I spy through the half-lit fields, but Ali’s little legs are flagging as we crest the hill and watch the sun spreading pink fingers across the bay. Families huddle on the shingle, where I hand a man a fat envelope; all I have. Aisha’s mouth is a stoic line when she sees the dinghy red and rocking, but Ali cries, clinging to me. We’re going to a better place, I say, carrying him through the freezing surf, the briny tang mingling with the stale odour of unwashed bodies. A place of calmer waters, where fishermen sing as they haul in their catch.
Madeleine is a journalist covering the pharma industry. She won the Hammond House international short story prize in 2023, and has had stories published by Farnham Flash Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, LISP, The Hooghly Review and WestWord. She lives in south-east London with her husband, son and two cats.
This story was shortlisted in the September 24 Monthly Micro Competition.