I woke from a dream that perplexed me. What did it mean? He and I were looking at a boat, which was actually a carboard box (like a huge lever arch one) and all lined with text-covered paper. It was in the harbour and waiting for customers. Someone had written in hand – Free but can be Wild. They were clearly offering fishing trips. As we watched a man and a young boy turned up. Neither had coats or waterproofs. He wore casual office wear, a jumper and chinos. They climbed in and set sail. The boat by this time was full of water – the child was completely submerged and the man was up to his chin. Neither seemed deterred or bothered, clearly they were used to it. And I watched it sail off out of the harbour into a rough sea. Is it about my application? Is it my fear of being subsumed by it? They appeared so content with their situation, accepting and meeting it, however, hopelessly.
The town’s Christmas tree is up though still denuded of lights.
He has told me about her before. She works on the till at Tesco’s. Yesterday they were talking about illness and her mother who is dementing. Then she let it slip that her father had stabbed her and got 5 (or was it 7) years for it. Her mother has a collapsed lung as a result of it. And apparently both her sister and brother-in-law died of Covid-19. And then she told him that her father (when she’d visited him in prison) had ‘tried it on with me’.
What lives people have to live, and endure.
Bless us all.
