Fog Gifts

 

Day 21 Flash Fiction Marathon prompt: The beach was shrouded in fog

 

Most people love going to the beach on beautiful days. They spread towels on the sand, slather themselves in sun tan lotion and bake. Periodically they go into the water, come out and repeat the process.

Not Marina. She never went to the beach on a good day. Rain, snow, sleet, she would bundle up and walk across the sand then sit on the dock. She would stare at the waves crashing on the shore. The roar to her was a symphony.

Most of all she loved the beach in the fog, preferably not so dense that she couldn't see where she was going, but dense enough that her cheeks would feel moist.

Today, was a foggy beach day. It was a five-minute walk to the beach and another two to the dock, a perfect spot to stand or even sit and stare across the water and think. Only half the lake was visible and the Jura on the other side were invisible as if they had packed up and gone to Italy. She had decisions to make. 

What should do about her thesis?

Her research was into single mother's who remarried and whose new husbands resented their kids and what they did about it. She could see it as a book and giving a Ted Talk or being interviewed by talk shows. Or at least she had until she tuned on the television and heard that Leslie, her fifth interviewee had killed her second husband because he had threatened her and her child.

Looking out into the fog she saw a small boat, the only boat on the lake. 

Then she heard a whimper. Going under the dock, she saw a puppy probably no more than a couple of months chained to a pillar. She picked up the cocoa-colored ball of fluff and put the shivering creature in her jacket.

Whoever did this, should be shot, she thought as she headed for home. There was no doubt in her mind that he? her? was going to be hers. 

"I'll name you Cocoa," she told the pup trying to think what she was going to feed her new friend, her fog gift.

Note: This piece was with two prompts. The one from the group and the photo my husband took walking the dog in the early morning fog.