Dusk

He fell into a trance. He liked where he was, in this beautiful place and he felt his life opening up again. Yes for the first time in years he felt optimistic. He didn’t want to leave. He kept waiting for her to come back.

After a few moments he opened his eyes, the sea was no longer relaxing. There was an anger to it, an urgency. He looked up at the pier, the long stilts silhouetted against the horizon, the sea lashing against them.

He walked up the slope of the entrance to the pier. Along the side were a couple of ice cream and souvenir shops but they had started to close and wind down for the day. Several people with dogs walked close to the barriers on the side, staring into the distance and pulling their reluctant pets behind them. Then he saw the lights at the end of the pier and they started to draw him in. The reds, oranges, blues and purples, they were flashing and the noise, the noise was irritating and attractive at the same time. Perhaps that’s where she had gone, outside the amusement arcade at the end of the pier, that would make a good photograph, all those colours in the failing light, yes that is where she would be.

When he got to the entrance of the arcade and tried the door it was locked, it was closing as well. As he stood there, the lights and the flashing stopped, someone had pulled the plug. For a moment he was blinded by the dark and he stumbled over to the barrier at the edge of the pier. He was the only one left, there was no one else. He played with his wedding ring again, twisting and turning. This time he took it off completely and threw it into the waves below.