Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER.
A yacht was moored in a gated marina in a wealthy waterside suburb.
Each day a girl appeared on deck and looked out to sea, briefly, then ducked back inside the cabin. She reappeared later with a mug. Then she surfaced with sopping handwashed clothes which she hung out along the shrouds. Then later again she could be seen with an open book that she was not reading.
No one visited the yacht, nor did she leave the marina. The winter sky produced rain and occasionally soft flurries of snow. A week passed.
One day a woman arrived, unloaded her car into one of the handcarts provided and trundled a load of food to the marina gate. She unlocked it with a pass code and closed it carefully behind her. She looked out to sea, briefly, then stopped in front of the yacht.
The girl looked up from the book she was pretending to read, then looked down again.
The woman boarded the yacht and grasped the girl’s chin with finger and thumb, forcing her to look up. Their eyes met. The woman dropped her gaze, let go and retreated into the cabin. She restocked the food. The woman walked away past the neat rows of moored yachts, closing the gate carefully behind her and drove away.
The girl emerged from the cabin in her bikini, with a sealed dry bag over her arm. She walked to the gate over the marina entrance and slipped her fingers through the bars. She looked out to sea, briefly, then dove into the water. She reached the seawall with strong even strokes and pulled herself and the bag up onto the coping stones.
She rested and dried herself. And dressed, shivering, in a little dress and low heels, and a slender black coat. She walked away up the stairs leading to the park. She skirted the edge of the park and made for the fringe of the city in the distance.
The next day, the girl could be seen walking back through the park. She changed into her bikini under a low arched tree. She swam back to the marina and boarded the yacht.