Elspeth is shaking out a checked blanket to lay on a sandy patch of beach when Beth yells, ‘Mummy, it’s Joe,’ and runs down to the gangly man standing close to the sea. She sighs, knowing that she too will now have to talk to him. There was a time when all she wanted to do was talk to him, but things rarely stay the same.
Joe looks up at Beth shouting his name and his smile makes his face look younger. He swings her around and she closes her eyes, and Elspeth feels a wedge of guilt lodged in her stomach seeing how much more Beth has missed Joe than she let on.
Back on the ground, Beth says, ‘Mummy, it is Joe,’ like Elspeth had somehow tried to persuade her daughter that she was wrong.
His youthful smile evaporates. ‘Hello Elspeth.’
‘Hello,’ she says. ‘How are you?’
‘Fine.’ Time has eroded the sound of his voice; it is no longer smooth, like pebbles in flowing water, but has sharp flinty angles.
‘How’s Millie?’
‘With her mother.’
‘Oh, Joe.’ Elspeth looks at Beth, crouched down in the shallow waves, the knuckles of her backbone pushing up through her red swimsuit. She’s putting shells into a bucket one by one.
‘Turns out a lawyer scorned is a hard person to beat. But,’ he spreads his hands as if he is going to clasp her round stomach, ‘I see things have worked out well for you, at least. I’m surprised you decided to have more children, but I suppose a financial windfall always helps.’
She pushes a strand of dark hair behind her ear and thinks about the two issues he’s brought up. She decides to ignore the first. ‘Not being with you… it was never about the money.’
‘I’d like to think it was. Rather my job wasn’t up to scratch than me falling short.’
‘Mummy,’ Beth says, standing up, ‘I’m going to go and make a sandcastle.’
‘Okay, darling,’ and Elspeth reaches out to stroke her head, but Beth has already scrambled away, back up to the sandy part of the beach where their blanket is.
‘I’ve got to go.’
He nods. ‘I know.’
‘Take care.’ She turns, and pushes hard with her bare feet against the stony surface.
She can’t look back.
Author bio:
Laura Besley writes short fiction in the precious moments that her children are asleep. Her fiction has appeared online (Fictive Dream, Spelk, EllipsisZine) as well as in print (Flash: The International Short Story Magazine, vol.9 No.1) and in various anthologies (Adverbally Challenged Vol.1&2, Another Hong Kong).
Photo by Michael Hardy on Unsplash