MORNING SERIAL
THE pebbles wet from the rain disguised the colour so it would be difficult, but he always first looked for the size and shape. The colour and the holes drilled by the most delicate bivalve, the piddock, the shell that even glows in the dark, would help to determine if it was a keeper. How this fragile creature was able to drill into solid stone he never knew.
Grandfather would have known but when he was alive it wasn’t relevant as he never collected pebbles then.
After a fruitless hour or more on the beach he returned to the cottage a little dejected but not surprised that he hadn’t picked up a replacement pebble. On the positive side he’d had the beach to himself and hadn’t had to interact with anyone, especially the boy. Placing the original pebble carefully back into the box and aligning it with the others he turned to re-enter the cottage. There it was, his net-needle, on the stool where he usually worked on the nets. It hadn’t been there earlier, he was certain. In that instant he knew. It had to be the boy from yesterday. No-one else had seen him there. He would have to thank him. He would have to ask him that first. That would be very difficult, involving a lot of words. Could he do it? He didn’t know.
He experienced an unusual feeling as he picked the net-needle up. Something like a small electric shock but more a tingling through his hand and fingers. He put it back down on the stool and the sensation went away. He picked it up again and an image of the boy flashed through his mind. Inside the cottage once more with the net-needle hanging back in its proper place he thought of the boy. He knew now that he would have to speak to him and in a strange way a calmness come over him. It was almost as if he was looking forward to it, but it was too easy to think like that. When it came to talking, it was a different matter. He would watch for him in the days ahead.
CHAPTER 4
FIVE days of looking out of the window had slipped by with no sign of the boy. He was sure, now that the holidays were over, that he had returned with his parents to where they lived.
> The Herring Man by Cyril James Morris is published by Parthian at £7.99
> www.parthianbooks.com