Life on Other Moons by Roger Market

Author:Roger Market
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: short book, family, gay, microfiction, father, fiction, literary fiction, short fiction, short stories, short ebook
Published: 2014-11-18T20:29:25.296424+00:00

Looking

Every evening, the waves come rushing back into the streets like a herd of Spanish bulls, and everyone scatters. They run up High Hill and stand at the top. Mostly, they wonder if the water will reach them this time. Fear is a tradition and a fact of life in this town—where the sea routinely runs in herds, washing away everything not anchored down, and even fishermen are somewhat uneasy about water.

The town’s inhabitants are creatures of habit. They eat breakfast at dawn every day, sitting on blankets at the beach. They look out over the sea. They fish until noon and then lay sandbags in town for as long as they can. Their homes are mostly protected when the tide brings the water around six o’clock, or five if the moon is feeling especially vindictive, and the people run to higher ground.

The girl who can’t speak is always among the people on High Hill. She is a teenage orphan, generally ignored during the day. She lost her family in waves. Nonetheless, she welcomes the waves, now, and the chance to evade them by climbing High Hill. That’s when everyone is together, looking at one another, performing head counts. She needs everyone to be looking from time to time. As if she matters, too.

When the waters recede, she waits to leave High Hill until the last possible second. Finally, the men say, "Let’s go now," and the women say, "Come on, let’s get some peace." She has no choice but to go. They have the power of speech. Who is she to deny them?

At the center of town is a sandbag shack, and that’s where she goes each night out of habit—and the men follow, and the women stop looking when the door is shut, and she is no longer ignored. Inside, she thinks about control. Is there a way to say no without actually saying it? In the sandbag shack, she might get an hour of sleep if the men get tired soon enough. When she emerges in the morning, no one speaks. The men come out behind her, one by one, and the women look the other way. Everyone begins the day looking.

They eat breakfast on blankets at the beach, looking out over the sea. They fish and look at the sea. When it’s time to sandbag their homes for protection, they do so with one eye on the sea. In the evening, the waters come running. Everyone is ready.

She is ready most of all. She stands on top of High Hill, looking out, and it might as well be a mountaintop. She is safe there. She is accounted for. When the tide recedes, she yearns to leave High Hill last or not at all. But she always leaves.

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