Wind
As he often does, Helen’s 80 year old father had decided not to speak to her for the whole day.
This time the old man’s silence has irritated and upset her so, after supper, she leaves the house to walk the promenade in the dark air to settle herself. But the air is boisterous with a westerly that pulls at her coat and hair but she perseveres and heads for the beach. There she sees the turmoil of the waves and the spume torn white from the tops of the breakers by the wind and flung through the angry air. She feels the needle stings of stirred up sand on her face. Clouds boil slowly overhead and are sent sailing out across Dover Strait where they twist and tear like rotten cloth as they are borne east on the gale. She turns back to the town and into the wind that pins her arms and tries to push her into an alley and forces itself into her mouth and throat. She is smothered. She cannot breathe. She runs home with gusts clutching at her clothes with dirty little fingers.
Helen goes into the den, kneels before her father and takes his hands in her own.
*Jack Semmens: Copywriter, art director, music video maker (rtd.). He has one novel, Seated Female Nude with One Arm Outstretched; 1 children's book, Dr Robert's Animal Sanctuary; 1 operetta, Lady Byron's Brothel, etc.