It's Still Life

Beyond an Intersection Named After an English King and a Saint
Six Sentence Story: Day 2

Title: Brighton Rock

By midday, we are relaxing on striped sun loungers in the shadow of Brighton Palace Pier, watching Hünga dance with waves whose rhythm orchestrates every movement of his playful partner, but beneath the pier, the waves feel dark and sinister; an iron nave with seagulls flying between the pillars like scared birds caught in a cathedral.

Nick points his cane, “Waves – an eternal lover’s argument with the shore,” he says as each one roars across the stone shingle and then whisper out again, depleted of its rigour, the tide pulling secrets from the pebbles that shift and clatter.

I’m reading one of the books that I’ve always wanted to read while Nick unties the twine from the brown paper parcel, ” … just a little surprise,” I say (it contains a lighter, a guillotine cutter and twenty Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona cigars).

“What are you reading?” Nick asks, and I turn the book cover towards him, “Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene,” … “Read to me, Brigid” he smiles.

“… Fred Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him, he with his newspaper-inky fingers and his bitten nails, his manner cynical and nervous, anybody could tell he didn’t belong – belong to the early summer sun, the cool Whitsun wind off the sea, the holiday crowd who came in by train, stepping off into fresh, glittering air…” and I nod in the direction of the Palace Pier and say, “Pinkie Brown is about to murder Fred Hale over there.”

Nick clips, toasts and draws the fire’s heat through the cigar – listens to me read – listens to the mechanical groans of carnival rides on the pier, the laughter and the calliope music … and in a voice that seems old as earth he says, “I think the dog is hungry – Hünga would murder for some fish and chips … ”

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Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story, including the word “parcel”. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2024.