This week’s photo prompt is provided by Michelle DeAngelis. Thank you Michelle!
The beachfront’s infested.
I see’em on every slipway, bumping their asses against the fencing. On the beach tangled in fishing nets like red snapper.
I found a pair behind the bar this morning, making out on a crate of Bud Light. Thought it was raccoons going through the trash again.
Meg used to laugh at my bitching, shake her head as she sliced lemons for the evening. ‘Leave ’em in peace. They’re only young once.’
Maybe that’s why I’m angry. Cos that used to be me and Meg rattling beer bottles, slipping into warm, gritty sheets of sand, waking when the sun seared the backs of our necks.
Now I’m here tending bar, slopping out drunks at closing, getting turned over at least once a season by some junkie too glass-eyed to see his way to the register.
And Meg’s in an urn in the back room, my golden girl stored in tarnished plastic.
Written for Priceless Joy’s FFfAW. See the pic and write a tale. Don’t forget to share, read and comment here.
Word Shamble 
This is a brilliant! He has my sympathy, and yet if I met him I’d probably dislike him the moment he opened his mouth. I’d love to read this story written in the third person. “Look at that bitter old sod…”
LikeLike
I wondered about the 1st person POV but felt the end worked better that way. I do usually write in 3rd – more comfortable with it I suppose. Thank you Jane. Really glad you liked it. And I suspect if I met the old curmudgeon I’d feel empathy for him … and want to spend as little time in his company as possible 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know who people resent the young for the same reason he does. I have no patience with them, but your use of the 3rd person brought out the empathy in me. All the same, I’ll make sure I avoid his pub 🙂
LikeLike
Ha! Me too – grumpy old devil. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
A great story. The first person worked for me, here. It’s good to have empathy for your creations, 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jealousy, at young lovers!
LikeLike
Yes indeed 🙂
LikeLike
Ah, a sad end to our observations of a curmudgeonly character, but I love that you don’t judge your characters, simply tell their story. Quick proofing check on the word “junkie” but otherwise golden. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for the proofing! All sorted. And thank you for the kind words, Pola and for reading
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m finding as I get older my disconnect from the younger generation grows, but then I guess I must have been like that once before! I can understand his state of mind, and only hope I come to live life a bit more in my later years than he seems to be managing! Great story Lynn.
LikeLike
Thank you, Iain. Yes, it’s hard not to look at young people and wonder what is going on in their heads … But I still have vivid memories of my teen years – not all happy ones either. It’s as tough being young as it easy being old (well, almost!), it’s just different. Thanks for reading
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very well done, Lynn.
LikeLike
Thank you Tish
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the imagery, though not all of it visual; imagery of a time now gone, now mourned.
LikeLike
Thank you Crispina. Yes, life seems to be as much about looking back as looking forward, especially as we age and realise we have more time behind us than to come! But all things have their season too and we have to let go of youth once it’s gone or live in regret all our lives
LikeLiked by 1 person
What! Leave go of our youth? Never. Well, okay, just a little. 🙂
LikeLike
Haha! I don’t mind leaving it behind – it comes with as many worries as pleasure
LikeLike
I think I’m Peter Pan. Though my youth was not so wonderful, my 20s were fantastic.
LikeLike
I was quite happy in my twenties, probably happy in my thirties. Sadly my forties seem to have brought a lot of losses, but I think that’s how life goes, isn’t it? Teens, though? They can bog off 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, I can’t say I really enjoyed my teens. Which is probably why I say of Peter Pan now. Because I didn’t have much of a life in my teens. Overcompensation. Though I far past the reckless stage. And then, of course, there are those missing 15 years when I had CFS/ME. Though I did write duruing that period; in fact I started this blog towards the end of if, so I can’t really complain. But I did live a very reclusive life.
LikeLike
Teens are a rotten time, I think. I never felt so uncomfortable in myself, so alone, so in need of company and yet rejecting most that was offered. So in need of guidance and yet rejecting it all! Total rubbish, rubbish years.
I have someone very close to me who suffers from Fibromyalgia. Rotten, sapping, leech of a condition. So hard to get out and just live a life. I’m so glad it sounds as if the worst is behind you
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was brilliant.
LikeLike
Thank you very much Neel
LikeLike
Hahaha! Great story! Poor Meg is in an urn in the back! LOL! Love the drawl that you used!
LikeLike
Thanks very much PJ
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a sad ending, I did not expect it
LikeLike
Thank you for reading Michael
LikeLike
Oof that ending, I loved you set up the reader to be a little annoyed at the grumpy narrator only to make us feel sympathy at the end. Well done, Lynn.
LikeLike
Thanks very much Jade
LikeLiked by 1 person
Whoa, that was brilliant Lynn. Loved the voice of the crusty old barkeep.
LikeLike
Thanks so much!
LikeLike
He’s jealous of what he’s lost, and that’s what’s sad. I knew a barman in Paris who was bitter and resentful because his wife had dementia. But it was pure self-pity. Complained that that wasn’t why he’d married her, to be the one looking after her. He thought is should have been the other way round. First person worked fine for me;
LikeLike
Wow! Whatever happened to ‘in sickness and in health’? Self pity is never attractive, though sort of fascinating from an author’s viewpoint 🙂
LikeLike
He was an interesting character from that point of view, a real piece of Old Paris that has gone now, but as a human being…. Not so sure.
LikeLike
Not a man to get close to!
LikeLike
He didn’t encourage it.
LikeLike
Great voice, and then the ending that suddenly explains it all works really well.
LikeLike
Thanks very much Sarah
LikeLike
Oh what an ending! I was getting annoyed with this man which turned into sympathy at the end! Great story Lynn!
LikeLike
Thank you so much 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aw, such a killer last line, and what a great set-up for it — wondering why he’s so bitter, what went wrong, and then bam, there it is. I really felt for him. And as always, love your amazing attention to the little details that paint the scene so well!
LikeLike
Thank you Joy! That’s such a lovely comment – you made my day 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brilliant take, so sad, I can understand how trapped he must feel now his beloved has passed, he’s best off out of there, getting a boat and cruising round the med!
LikeLike
Thank you! Maybe he’ll do just that. Thanks so much for reading
LikeLike