I'll Be Back
The frost-ruby sun creeping over Skull Crag catches Catriona serenading the unsullied
morning.
‘Massive halibut shoals in the Minch.’ father had said.
Shin deep in glacial brine, she harvests the razor shells herded into the gaunt shadow
of the Devil's Knuckles by the looming daylight.
‘Calm seas, don't you fret. I'll be ashore before you can fill two buckets.’
Back aching from scooping tightly sealed clams one by one into her calf-skin sack,
Catriona straightens for a stolen moment to check again for father's missing boat.
Every muscle below her knees is numbed by the out-flowing current, her fingers the
same blue as her reddened eyes.
‘Your mother’s eyes.’
Catriona squints over at the row of five overflowing metal pails on the beach before
scanning the unbroken horizon.
‘I’ll be back my girl. I’ll be back.’
Alan Kennedy is a Scottish writer living in the Basque country. He has seen more than 25 of his stories published. Apart from writing, his other main interests include playing music, learning languages and hill-walking. Alan has one daughter.
This story won Second Prize in the September 24 Monthly Micro Competition.