SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FUTURISTIC SHORT STORY WINNER
Suncatcher IV
BY DOMINIC BELL
Dominic Bell is a former oil rig worker from Hull, East Yorkshire, and writes as a break from computer programming. His main writing project is endlessly editing a series of First World War novels, the number of which increase by one annually due to NaNoWriMo. He tries to enter almost all the WM short story competitions to diversify his writing and have the satisfaction of actually finishing something. He has won several competitions run by WM, Writer’s Format and Cranked Anvil.
Bridget found me in a deserted bay near Scarborough. I was sitting on a rock jotting notes as the March showers came and went. She came and sat a little distance away with her own notebook, both of us writing to the steady beat of the breaking waves, the plaintive calls of the seagulls. At once I could only write about her. After a while she walked across the sand towards me, and read out what she had written about me. I was lost. That day was supposed to be the last day of my holiday. Instead I called my work and quit. She was that special. And now she was leaving in two days. For half a year.
‘I will wait,’ I said.
She shook her head.
‘Come with me. They prefer us to have partners. Working partners, anyway. They think it keeps us sane.
And you’d fit in.’
‘But what could I do?’
‘You can mop? Point a hose?’
‘Probably,’ I said. ‘With training.’
‘Then you can clean arrays. I’ll put your name forward.’
‘For next time?’