The Cuffer Anthology by Pam Frampton

Author:Pam Frampton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Creative Book Publishing
Published: 2014-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

GERARD COLLINS has published in various literary journals and has won several provincial arts and letters prizes, including in 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has also won the Percy Janes First Novel Award and is now working on both a new gothic novel and a short-story collection called “Moonlight Sketches.”

Under the Flake

by Jim Combden

A boy not in the skiff with his father roamed beaches under flakes. Skipping rocks, sailing boats and trapping birds. Often a laying pullet rather than a beach bird would be snapped between two rusty steel jaws. Isaac got no fishing experience until his mother remarried, when Isaac was 13. Until then, he was a beachcomber.

Skipping rocks required a flexible wrist, a keen eye, and excellent balance. The aim was to start the stone skipping as soon as it hit the water. This took an unlimited supply of flat rocks. Over five years, 50 per cent of Little Harbour’s beach was skipped into the ocean.

Isaac competed in skipping contests. A champion was declared every week, with Stan, Melvin and Wendell wearing invisible crowns several times before August’s end. No ribbons or trophies, just a slap on the back and a dozen flat rocks, with the satisfaction of knowing you could skip a stone to the Funks.

Saltwater ponds below the flakes had a permanent supply of tiny fish, about two inches long. Darnybats, the local name. A cocktail fruit tin trapped the fish, which were immediately transferred to the boat’s stomach for shipment to an imaginary country. Boys became fishermen, crossing rough seas to deliver a hundred barrels of fresh snails, starfish and crabs.

Little white sails, cut from an old pillowcase, adorned crude boats chopped from planks and slabs. Tiny fish, 10 to a boat, swelled to thousands with a sprinkle of imagination. Unfortunately, these little creatures died when removed from their natural habitat. Isaac watched tiny mouths gasping for air, but his heart was as cold as the ocean.

Traps offered daily surprises. There was the risk of trapping a rooster, hen or cat, creating a civil war. Stan and Isaac laid fox traps with teeth that snapped off wings, legs, necks and fingers. The initial inspection revealed the toes of Aunt Ivy’s red pullet attached to the plate. The bird staggered toward home. Flinging the trap into the harbour, two criminals sneaked away under the code of silence.

Grandmother said, “A still tongue makes a wise head.” In this case, two still tongues would save two heads.

“Don’t say a word,” whispered Stan, putting a forefinger to his lips. Like thieves, they slipped around the shore and approached their homes from a direction not visible through Aunt Ivy’s kitchen window. If the hen hopped home before Isaac did, he became the prime suspect.

Hurricane Ivy hit with vengeance. “Dem boys got da leg cut off me best laying hen. I knows ‘tis them, they’re forever in the landwash. They’ll have to pay for that lovely pullet.” Froth flew from Ivy’s lips, as she raged over the rocks to grandmother’s bridge.

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