The Night Fish

Sam and Mary were sitting on the dark beach. Sun had already set, then the sky was alight for a while, but it had grown darker and darker until you could see all the stars and galaxies.

Sam and Mary had not spoken, but it was not the kind of uncomfortable silence where you stress over coming up with a topic of conversation. Perhaps they were at that stage back in college when they first met, but it was since past them.

It was not comfortable silence either, the type you share with your loved ones where you just being together is enough. That stage was past them as well. This silence was just a simple disconnect. They were sitting on the sand, looking at the sky and the crashing waves, and thinking about something else. Separately.

Then suddenly something began to shimmer in the sea brine, a swarm of silvery flashes. Sam and Mary recognized it immediately, those were Nelson’s Sea Bass mating and the flashes were their scales reflecting the light of distant stars. Beams of light that had converged on this beach from millions of miles away to shine on an orgy of mindless sea creatures.

Sam and Mary looked at each other, each recollecting different memories. And each of them smiled.

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk