Turn of the Tide | ONC 2023

[9] Storm Call

    "Steel clouds in the sky. Thunder cracking the ground. Waters of a frightful evil colour all around. They're ill tidings, the lot of them! I can feel it in my bones, there's a storm over us!"

    The radio's crackle ceased and hushed Old Norton's frantic exclamations. "Codswallop," Jim growled, tossing the box away. "Have us starving out of our skins, he would."

    Nestled in the corner of the living room sofa, Sally snapped out of her daze as the radio clattered to the floorboards. She did not know how long she had been staring without reading at the book in her hand, but she assumed it was too long to be stuck re-reading the first few scenes of The Tempest. "He might be right, Dad. It's rough out there," she said, peeking through the heavy sunset-toned curtain by her side. "Not a boat out right now. Everybody's shoring up indoors for the night, looks like."

    The cottage's living room was a close space, the available standing room slight enough for Sally's brother to cover from doorway to bay window in two decent strides. A plush sofa and a sturdy armchair sat in large swathes of space, both stitched together in sleek smoke-coloured fabric and overlaid with red and blue tartan blankets. Bare bricks circled around the fireplace on the back wall, the void behind the cast-iron grille lying dormant now despite Sally's wish to spark the core to vibrant life. Just as quiet was the television set in the corner opposite her, its dark screen reflecting the pensive silence filling Ronan's features. The radio settled at her brother's feet, speechless.

    "What care have I what folk are doing? Folk can be hiding in their beds when the weather's a bit blustery if that tickles their fancy, but some of us have to pay to keep the lights on," her father grumbled as he eyed the doorway into the cottage's main passage. "I'm going out."

    Ronan sprang from the armchair. "A bit blustery? Dad, look out there! The wind's howling like a banshee, the village is swimming in rain, and the sea's nothing but a wall of water!" Taking the radio from the floor, he set it back on its shelf and locked eyes with Jim. "I'm just as sick of Old Norton's whinging as you are, believe me. But heading out there now...you'd have to be a right muggins to do that!"

    Poised on the line between living room and hallway, Jim countered his son's slight height advantage with audible flares of his nostrils. "Muggins, am I? And what have you got set aside for the taxman, lad?" He weighed up Ronan's wordless response and, finding no resistance, tapped his son back a step. "I've said I'm going out, son, and that's what I'm doing."

    "Then I'm coming with you," Ronan said, pulling at his long hair. To his amusement, Jim's expression fell into one of honest shock. "You shouldn't be going out at all, never mind going alone! After all, someone has to be fishing your boots out when the sea swallows you up."

    Jim leaned on the doorframe, staring at the lines of his scarred palms and sighing under an invisible weight. "Now hold on, you –"

    "I've said I'm coming with you, Dad, and that's what I'm doing." The smirk on Ronan's lips was infectious, and Sally hid behind her raised knees as the riposte registered on her father's face.

    Pushing into the corridor, Jim stroked his beard. "Be ready in ten, lad," he muttered, glancing between the door and further into the cottage before settling on joining his wife in the candlelit kitchen and dining room.

    Sally's glee fizzled out as soon as her father left her sight. "You're joking, Ronan. You can't seriously be going out on the water now, on the one day there's an actual storm hitting us!" As she spoke, a strike of thunder snapped near the wall and shook the cottage's skeleton around them.

    Shifting his weight between his feet, Ronan oozed with uncertainty. "I'll try and talk some sense into him, but you know better than I do what Dad's like. You're just as stubborn as he is when you want to be." With a weak smile, he wrapped an arm around Sally's shoulders and pulled her into a hug, his force tighter than usual. "It'll be alright. Whatever happens, I'll bring him back in one piece. Don't you be worrying about that."