MORNING SERIAL
“WHAT’S that all about and what kind of bird is an albatross? I’ve never heard of it.”
The old man paused. “Do you like to read?” he asked the boy. “Not much,” he replied. “Pity,” said the old man. “I still have his book here somewhere. I’ll give it to you if I can find it. You should read it and you will find the answers to all your questions.”
“Maybe. What happened next?”
But the old man had run out of talk for stories for the time being. He wanted to ask the boy about the new pebble that he must have placed in the box, and to tell him to remove one not as good, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it. He would be bound to ask why he, the old man, was collecting special pebbles, and he couldn’t and wouldn’t want to explain. Better that he kept his counsel and said nothing.
THE BOY
Oars dipping softly through time and space
As words in the current of life gather pace.
A boy, now a man with a “father” again
Sets him free from a life, stricken with pain.
CHAPTER 8
IT’S been more than a year now since I left school and so much has happened. I am gradually beginning to understand. My friend the old man eventually told me the rest of Grandfather’s story, and that’s what I have come to know him as, as well as: Grandfather. The old man the father I’d never had. I heard about his trip up through the Pacific to the Alaskan islands, in particular to one of the very small islands in the Aleut chain, Agattu Island. It is one of those almost unbelievable stories, that I’m sure was true, that Grandfather passed on to him, but more of that later.
I had asked Father if there was any silver paint in the shed as I wanted to re-paint the image of the herring on either side of the bow of the boat. He wouldn’t let me into the shed again to help him find it and I was beginning to sense that therein was some secret that he couldn’t share.
> The Herring Man by Cyril James Morris is published by Parthian at £7.99
> www.parthianbooks.com
CONTINUES MONDAY