Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER.
#1 Once upon a time there was…
I sat at the beach on my own as usual, looking out at the boats, listening to the seagulls, the kids, the parents, the goofy guys trawling the sands and feeling the sun on my face and sand in my feet. I saw, out of the corner of my eye a couple. A young man of about 13 and his girlfriend.
#2 Every day…
They sat at an awkward adjacency, looking around them before eventually settling next to each other, leaning on each other, legs crossing over, rib cages intertwining. Romeo and Juliet, #Once upon a time there was…
“What a wonderful sight.” I thought from the corner of my mind. To think that every day this little scenario is being played out all across this magnificently round world of ours.
#3 One day
With an ear pricked to one side I watched a seagull hover beneath a cloud and above, who knows, maybe a small fish or just atop a draft for fun, for sport. The young man leaned back and uttered these words #”One day…” before leaning closer to her and whispering something in her ear which made her giggle and laugh and smile.
Had he made a promise to her?
#4Because of that
They resumed their quiet little tender play of wordless love, straightening hair and scratching each others itchy bites. Then they both, in no time at all, had stood up and proceeded hand in hand towards the shore for a nice stroll along the edge of the tide.
#Because of that seagull and its incessant harping, all of those tender thoughts about my own youth
#And because of that
and what little romance there was to be had in it were drowned out. #And because of that I was prompted, perhaps from some sense of futility to get up and make for the fish and chip shop and see if I could find a nice piece of fish to gobble up.
#6Until finally
So there I stood, fifteen minutes later with a piece of fried fish in one hand and a small carton of chips in the other and observed the traffic as it slid past. I gazed past the sun and soft breeze #until finally I decided that it might be a good time to call it a day and go home and do the cleaning like I said I would. This always necessitates the dragging out of the #vacuum.