Saturday, October 30, 2010

303. Together in perfect harmony


When Arkie was three years old, his parents, who were living in Narooma at the time, decided to sail around the world. It wasn’t an instantaneous decision, they chatted about it over the weekend. When Arkie was 17, to his mother’s bewilderment, he jumped ship at Portsmouth.

Arkie is now back living in Narooma, renting the double garage on the block next to his Gran and working on the fisherman’s wharf as a general deck-hand. He’s a pretty laid-back sort of a bloke, never steps on people’s toes and always ready to listen to the other side of an argument. But every so often Arkie gets what he can only describe as a boiling in his blood.

He stands on the end of the pier with his toes over the edge of the plank, pleading with his legs not to dive in and head off into the wide, blue yonder.

4 comments:

Everyday Goddess said...

i find that story rather sad. He seems lost. I hope he finds peace.

Julie said...

Many of my 'stories' at the moment, are about the influence of upbringing. There is an obvious family basis for this direction, but each and every story is a work of fiction. There will be more little stories nibbling around the issues of upbringing (nature vs nurture, etc) I feel in the coming weeks. But them, I am frequently surprised by the story that is written. I thought this one was going to be about the racial melting-pot.

Brian Miller said...

you know...i can relate...

Joan Elizabeth said...

Life can be a muddle at time for most of us I think. You capture his moment of muddle well.