Heavy heat pressed him back onto the park bench, seedy sweat making his shirt uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u2018I should never have got off the boat.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Yeah, yeah. Tell me about it again, why don\u2019t you. I enjoy listening to it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The sea never treated us this rough.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Christ\u2019s sake, the sun\u2019s fricking shining, that\u2019s all. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re gonna fall over board and drown.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s not the same\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018That\u2019s what I\u2019m saying, you gobdaw.\u2019<\/p>\n
There was the simplest of breezes coming in off the sea, hot wind, not cooling. Gulls sat on thermals that twisted up from the concrete wharf. Boats rocked gently, salt crusted ropes slapping on masts, rusted applause for a sailor who has turned his back on the sea.<\/p>\n
\u2018We could go home, run a cool bath. Like, if you\u2019re hot and all.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I wanna stay here a bit longer. Looking out there, it\u2026 It gives me peace.\u2019<\/p>\n
A young couple walked past them, pushing a pram, gazing together at their little piece of miracle, a gift so easily given by some, so cruelly denied by others. Alice turned her head from them, looking north towards the open bars and seafront cafes.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hey,\u2019 she said. \u2018Look over there.\u2019<\/p>\n
He looked, and immediately tensed. He pulled his feet up, despite the cramped bench, pulled himself into a ball. The cat was black with a white trim at its throat. It wandered along, dawdling as if conscious of the effect it was having. It stopped straight in front of them to lick at its fur, then eventually found something to draw it further down the promenade, away from them.<\/p>\n
\u2018You can relax,\u2019 she said. \u2018It\u2019s gone now.\u2019<\/p>\n
He uncurled himself slowly, cautiously. If he had been damp before, he was saturated now, and his eyes had shrunk into his head.<\/p>\n
\u2018Home,\u2019 he muttered, pulling him self up onto his skeletal legs.<\/p>\n
As Alice stood to follow him she felt a strong pang of guilt, but there was only so much she could take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heavy heat pressed him back onto the park bench, seedy sweat making his shirt uncomfortable. \u2018I should never have got off the boat.\u2019 \u2018Yeah, yeah. Tell me about it again, why don\u2019t you. I enjoy listening to it.\u2019 \u2018The sea never treated us this rough.\u2019 \u2018Christ\u2019s sake, the sun\u2019s fricking shining, that\u2019s all. It\u2019s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gooseberryseason.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}