Roker Sea Front (Flash fiction entry from 2016 Sunderland Literature and Creative Writing Festival)
Glenda Young
We ate ice-cream by the beach and watched the tide kiss the shore. Seagulls dared each other to peck by our feet, in case we dropped crumbs, just in case. You wore your blue pirate t-shirt and charmed an old lady out strolling in the sun. The day you went they searched the park and the Bridges before the river was dredged. And now I come to remember. I sit on the sand and listen to the waves hoping to hear pieces of eight and your crazy pirate laugh. And the seagulls peck by my feet, just in case.