Flux

It was just a glint of sunlight the first time I walked past. I have to say, even with the benefit of hindsight, that I didn’t think twice about the glimmer. It wasn’t until the next time that it caught my eye, a full month later, that the memory of the first time jumped right to the front of my brain. They do that don’t they, memories. Hidden until you suddenly need them, or think you don’t need them. Either way, the second time it caught my full attention. “What is that?”, out loud to no one in particular. I paused my walk to work. It’s amazing what can keep you from the office, the tiniest of excuses will do. If I had have noticed it at the end of the day I would have walked straight past, maybe I had already, on a different tide, who knows. But on the way to work your sense of curiosity is a little bit heightened, isn’t it?

So I stopped, and I looked. The path I walk along, or at least part of it, takes me right next to the water, just a wall of stones to my left, sloping steeply down towards the salty tide. In one week, out the next, with just the tiniest of changes in between. Today it was out again, and the morning sun was hitting something stuck in the rocks. It was just out of reach though, too far down, only just out of the water really. I looked along the path and along the road that runs alongside it. A jogger plodding away from me, a few cars rolling along. Ah, I don’t know them, who cares I’m curious. And a man in a suit climbing down to the water? It’ll give them a story to tell when they get to the office.

The rocks are kind of sharp, volcanic type things. But they’re about the right size for carefully stepping down. The most awkward part of the process was balancing on the slope and leaning down to inspect the shine. It was poking out, whatever it was, but mostly obscured. Getting my head down to its level I could see what it was. No wonder it shone so brightly, despite being mostly covered. And how on earth was I going to get it out of there. Gold is renowned for its weight, and especially a bar this big.

It’s about then that I lost my balance. The spring morning was warm, but the water was most definitely cold. More than cold, it’s freezing. I’m already shivering as I scramble out of the water, ripping both my trouser legs and the skin of my knees as I climb back up the rocks. Despite the cold and the cuts, I head straight back to where the gold was. Or to where I think it was. Where exactly was it? I’m not worried about the passers-by now, even the ones who’ve stopped their own commute to watch a crazy man dripping with water and scrambling around the waters edge. I swear it was just here. There was gold, I saw it.