“Sunset” 2023 Flashscapes! Competition Shortlist

Best you don’t come, they said. The water is too cold. The wind is too strong. The sand is too soft. So I wander through the house I built while they wander to the sea loaded with towels and tips for salary sacrificing. They will come home and shower in the bathroom I screeded and tiled and grouted. Before then, it was bore water out the back that washed the sand off. The sand that’s too soft for me now. The sand my pronating feet can’t be trusted on. The sand that’s as soft as their palms.