Silver Beach

Written 08/07/06, for the prompt: Write a story in which someone takes a picture.



I bring the camera up to my face, and I stare at her down the lens. The wind brings her hair to life, making it dance around her eyes, her lips. I long to brush it away, feeling her skin beneath my fingertips. Instead, I press my finger and take her photo.

She smiles at me, rolling her eyes. She is used to my obsession and it amuses her. She turns away, lifting her summer dress so that the waves do not reach it. Barefoot, we stroll along the margin of sand and water, the salt in the air drying on our faces. I take her photograph again and again, always windswept, always beautiful.

There are other people here, other couples. A family walks their dog, the children laughing and shrieking. But their excitement, their joy does not penetrate the little bubble we inhabit. Together like this, we let the world pass us by.

I wonder whether she will still let me take her picture in fifty years time, or whether she will shy away from the camera, no longer sheilded by her beauty. I long to place a ring on her finger and make her mine. But surely such a dazzling creature would never accept my offer? This thought binds me in cowardice, and for now I know I will not ask her.

She runs through the surf, spraying brine in the wind. She steals my camera from me, leaving me floundering without it. She turns to me and I hear the click of the shutter as she captures my image, standing off-balance and alone, my eyes questioning her for eternity.

She laughs, her voice filling my heart like the rhthym of the ocean.




Word Count: 295

Daily Flash FIction Contest Winner 08/07/06. Thank You Captain Colossal !