How Big?

I’m once more attempting Al’s fabulous prompts. I’ve missed a couple of the Haibun Thinking Challenges, but here is this weeks. Haibun is a Japanese literary form that combines one or more paragraphs of your written narrative (prose) with a concentrated (short) poem – the haiku. Hai stands for haiku, bun stands for prose. It’s a great way of getting your creative juices flowing, why don’t you follow the link and have a go. There is a literary prompt or a photo prompt, this week I’ve gone for the photo. I may have gone a bit off slant this week, but I’m still practicing, so please excuse me.

Mavis’s eyes scanned the water, “Beryl, are you sure that’s him”

“Oh yes, I’d know him anywhere” she replied,

Waves rose out ahead of them, the salty brine of seaweed and fish leaving a taste of something almost forbidden in their mouths. Beryl watched as Mavis traced a thin layer of saliva across her lips. It was almost indecent.

“But you said he was so, so ….” she hesitated not sure how to say it out loud.

“So what?” asked Beryl

“So… mmm…big” she almost whispered.

“OH YES” Beryl’s voice hit a sudden high.

“But it doesn’t seem THAT big to me” said Mavis without moving her eyes from the water.

Beryl reached for her reading glasses in the ruck sack “Well it HAS been a while”

She rubbed the glasses with her hankie and set them in place,

Her mouth opened agape “Oh”

Before adding quickly “Well it is April Mavis, the water must be freezing”

Beryl raised an eyebrow “Huh, huh”

“And you know how the cold can effects things”

“Not that much” said a somewhat deflated Beryl.

The spell was broken as the silver sheen of the dolphin’s hump cut through the swell and disappeared into the grey, blue azure below. Both women turned towards the pier and said in unison,

“Fancy a coffee in Moby Dick’s?”

*

Memory is often,

So much more than we have seen,

Cold affects us all.