The Drifter

Part 3 of 6 by Joseph Ridgwell

Protecting the beach was a series of giant sand dunes. I marched to the top of a dune and gazed at the endless blue Pacific Ocean. The beach was deserted and another long Australian summer was finally fading away, and suddenly it felt like my time in Australia was coming to an end because everything has to end somewhere. High up on the ridge the wind whipped sand into a frenzy and my thoughts kept returning to the contents of the letter. I pulled the document from my pocket and read it again, studying every word and detail a thousand times. The words described the death of an unborn child, the termination of a life, but there was no sadness in the words, no, they were just words, technical words, and sometimes words are not enough.

6S

Joseph Ridgwell lives and writes in London. Look for Part 4 of The Drifter on Sunday, May 27th.