The rocks,the clouds,the various shapes under the ocean surface;they all resembled Gretta.He saw her everywhere;he couldn't escape it,she was everywhere.She was in his him...
He had decided not to fish that day.That day would be his vacation,his day to explore;to explore his thoughts.Strolling down the white sands,he retraced every spot he visited with Gretta,every footstep.He saw a rock.it protruded from the sea surface a distance away from shore.It resembled a pine tree.Chuck chuckled to himself;he planned to point the rock out to Gretta on their next walk together,just so he could give her a good laugh.He then looked at the shore break,at the introduction and removal of sand and shells by the breaking waves.He then spotted,among the other plain white shell-shaped shells,a conical one.The conical was flawless.It was navy blue,with a trim of sea blue round the edges.It beautifully reflected the sunlight,separating it into a beautiful spectrum of colours.Chuck loved the shell;it reminded him of...He paused in his thoughts.He let out a heavy sigh;the shell reminded him of Gretta.He missed her;he missed her beautiful pools of coal-black eyes,he missed the sweetness in her voice,the serenity that he achieved simply by being with her.He missed her dearly.
Depositing the shell into his pocket,he walked on,with his head to the front but his mind to his heart.
The clouds greyed in thick layers of moisture.Flashes of light rushed through these clouds.Chuck worked his hands faster and faster.It was crucial to light the fire before the gentle but problematic winds blew.The fire had to be strong,for it had to last him the whole night;the freezing night ahead.A spark jumped up from the spot where the stick was being rubbed onto the fire wood.It jumped a foot high and was extinguished when it hit the fire wood.This frustrated Chuck.He rubbed the stick harder into the wood...Snap!The stick broke.Chuck needed something to strike the woods with to spark a fire.he felt around his pockets.He felt the shell.It was perfect,but,he couldn't bear to use it for the purpose of fire-making;it was reserved for Gretta.His frustrations grew in response to a rough wind blowing down the chimney and into him.He got furious and kicked the log towards the wall.Just then,a rampage of a wind blew and swung his door open.Bang!Chuck jumped.It had already started to drizzle and he had not made any significant progress in his fire making;he just needed something rough,something that would not break easily.
Something waving in the wind caught his attention just outside the hut.He rushed out to find that his net had still been left next to the hull of his boat.He rushed down the cliff.His net's rough surface would be able to chafe the fire wood into a few sparks at least;perhaps he was finally getting somewhere.He ran towards the net,and stumbled upon the shock of detecting the sharp stench of rotting fish.As he struggled to get up,a large wave smashed onto the shore surface and knocked him back down.He got into a rogue state of total frustration;feeling his hands shake in total anger.He let out a burst of energy,thrusting his fist into the ground,to force him to get up and he looked ahead.And there he saw it...
Hidden in the darkness of the night,yet a distant out to sea,he saw a figure.It was being lapped up by random intervals by violent waves that beat upon it.Chuck's anger turned to curiosity as he let out a yell,loud yet muffled by the sound of the storm,"Gretta?".No response was detected.In his sudden fit of worry,he charged out to sea,towards the figure.
He swallowed many gulps of horrid sea water while struggling to reach the figure.And forced every ounce of energy into his arms and legs to finally be within rescue range.In a paced but reluctant rate,he reached out to touch the figure.It was cold,hard and rough,and failed to budge at all.He was appeased to find that the figure was not Gretta,unconscious,yet he felt stupid for failing to recognise the difference.
All of a sudden,all the adrenaline he had been forcing into his arms,and all the fatigue he had been suppressing,was released into his bloodstream.He let out a yell of pain,his screams gone disfigured and soft under the water.The violent waves tossed him around under water as if he were nothing more than a piece of driftwood;or at least he would have wished to be when he started to sink,as an anchor.He struggled to stay afloat,but the adrenaline sent constant reminders of pain to his limbs,and they went limp at irregular points of seconds.
And the shell in his pocket drifted out of his pocket...It floated up to the surface where he could see it,before letting out a huge pocket of air before gliding back down into the water.Chuck saw the shell,and lunged forward to grasp it.His efforts failed,and gave him an excruciating pain in his arms.He was sinking...swallowing huge gulps of bitter darkness.Before uttering his disfigured speech to the falling shell,"I'm sorry Gretta.Please don't forget me!"
And with those last words,the darkness swallowed him whole,and pulled him into oblivion.
The shell was suspended in mid-water,going wherever the current fated it to go.the current pushed it towards the land,and the waves slapped it onto shore.where it lay,among the other shells once more.
The sunrise was beautiful,a replica of the sunset.A shadow strolled along the sand towards the shore break,where the gentle waves lapsed at the shells among the sand;where one particular shell stood out.A beautiful conical shell this one,unique one,unlike the other common white fan-shaped shells that lay around this one.Gretta picked it up and held it to her ear.She heard the beautifull swash of the ocean.
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