Standing on the World.

This story is now published as part of the anthology ‘Loyal and True’.

Bonnie took Raphael’s hand and led him down to the shoreline.

They both knew this spot well; they played here as children.

Raphael had not seen Bonnie since he had gone away to university, but being home for the holidays it was a good time to renew old friendships.

The sudden and unexpected death of their friend had shaken all of them and each, in his or her own way, was trying to make sense of it.

As they approached the shoreline Bonnie asked,”Do you know what these are?”

“Of course I do, they’re rocks.”

“Not just any rocks. When the sailing ships came into Melbourne they sometimes needed extra weight to keep them stable. When they got here they would dump the rocks on this spot before they loaded their cargo. Rocks from all over the world. My brothers and I would come down here to play, and to get out of the house when our dad was beating six shades of hell out of our mum. Darren used to say that standing here, on the rocks from all parts of the world gave him hope that one day he could be in all of those places.”

Raphael hesitated to ask but he wanted to know if she had any inkling of why Darren had done it.

“I don’t know”, was her only reply.

“Maybe when he went out into that big wide world, it was all too much for him. Maybe his success was too much to bare?”

He was clutching at straws and he knew it but it was good to have someone to talk to about it.

“Rocks from all over the world and they are going to sweep it all away and build a marina. All that history, just so much landfill for a breakwater.”

She was walking away as she said it and Raphael sensed that he should follow her.

Everything changes and when you are young and the changes are swirling around you, you don’t think twice about it. But then you get a bit older and you realise that the things you knew, the things you loved and thought would always be there, they were probably going to drift away.

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