RUBBISH - flash fiction

RUBBISH

Charlie was happiest when the only sound was the shriek of gulls fighting over fish guts, but Jed wanted a mechanical winch.

“Winches got no sense, boy,” Charlie said, “Can’t feel what’s in the net like hands can.”

“We’d catch more.”

“Don’t need more - we ain’t greedy like some folks.” Charlie picked rubbish from the net. “Got more respect for the sea, too.”

One day the net was too heavy even for their calloused hands.

“Bloody container dropped off a ship, I reckon,” Charlie cursed.

 Cutting the rope, they returned to shore, leaving their discarded net wrapped around a whale.

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The photograph, taken by Jan Wayne Fields, is the prompt this week for Friday Fictioneers, hosted by   https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/   I am particularly grateful for the prompt this week as I have written nothing else, due to a cataract operation last week that's left me a bit disorientated. I'll be fine when the other eye is done, which I hope can be soon!

Meanwhile, please leave me a comment  and browse the rest of my site before following the link on Rochelle's blog to read other 100 word stories.

SUN.SEA & S.....?

SUN, SEA (and another S that I can’t remember at my age) are why the average tourist comes to Tenerife. The sun can be relied upon to shine almost every day, and even a winter holiday can result in a tan to cause envy among those left at home. In high SUMMER it’s too damned hot, which the Tourist Board won’t tell you, and out electricity bill shoots up because we’ve got the ceiling fans on day and night. Especially at night, when even naked you’re too hot to SLEEP.

Our apartment block SHARES a pool with the next block – 160 apartments in all – and in the two and a half months of SCHOOL holidays the noise level is such that it seems every child is in the pool. When the temperatures reach 40+ there will also be groups of women chatting in the SHALLOW end, up to their SHOULDERS in water, and I have seen mothers holding tiny babies in the pool for a while to cool them down before putting them to bed.

My theory is that if the air temp is greater than 37◦F then your body overheats enough to make you SICK – mine does, anyway. If I was rich I would SPEND July, August and September in England, rain and all.

This of course is what SWALLOWS do – they fly SOUTH for the winter. I’m not talking about the birds, but the people. Some own apartments or villas, but many more rent for a few months at long-term rates, like we did when we first arrived here. 

            

They bring their social life with them, meeting the same friends every year, playing bridge, eating out, line-dancing. Local groups such as the Lions actually time their dinner dances and other social events to coincide with the Swallows.

                           

SEA For more than half the year the sea is packed with people SWIMMING. Local children are taught to swim before they’re out of nappies – very sensible on an island – and by the end of summer every child is a healthy brown. On Las Galletas beach I have seen grandparents being helped into the sea, where the waves take the weight off STIFF hips and bodies remember their younger days. There are also boys (oddly enough, never girls) on SURF-BOARDS riding the breakers – locals who know where the rocks are – this is not a forgiving coast for the uninitiated.       

You can take boat trips to see the whales and dolphins or go fishing in the deep waters that surround the islands. There are ferries to other islands – it’s less than an hour to La Gomera, our nearest neighbour. And the SUNSETS over the sea are SPECTACULAR when you can SIT on a terrace or promenade, SIPPING a SUN-DOWNER.

Some people would choose SANGRIA, a refreshing drink and very pretty with its fruit and mint leaves in a frosted jug clinking with ice cubes. It’s not to my taste and, like punch, you never know what’s in it. If I get drunk I think it should be my fault, not a waiter’s.

SCULPTURE or STATUE? Is it a sculpture if it’s been poured into a mould? Can it be a statue if it’s not a person? I don’t know, but this creation has appeared in the fancy new park that’s being built in our village. No doubt as SOON as the gates are officially opened it will be SPRAYED with graffiti. Cynical? Moi? Perish the thought!

OSTRICHES & OBESITY

OPERATION

My medical blog on Saturday seems to have come across as a disaster story, which was not my intention. We’ve had good medical treatment here – it’s just different, that’s all. And the funds to keep it going are limited, hence the delay in building the hospital. Tenerife is subject to the whims of mainland Spain, and consequently its infrastructure is second class. The individual care we get from our GP is not.

 OIL. Talking of the mainland – the Peninsula, as the Canarians call it with a definite sneer – the Spanish government has told Repsol that it can prospect for oil off these islands. This agreement – this sell-out – was rushed through despite the Canary Island government saying oil drilling will ruin our environment and our tourism. The sea around our islands is so deep that whales live here all year round, regulating their temperatures by diving to colder water in summer. Can you imagine the impact drilling would have on them? The OPINION here is that Spain will take what it can, particularly in view of the financial crisis, but give little back.

 OSTRICHES

If you fancy something completely different, try a meal of OSTRICH at the ostrich farm and restaurant near San Isidro and the airport. Ostrich meat is low in cholesterol and calories and tastes a bit like steak, and the set meal with drinks is around €20. You get the tour thrown in for free if you eat there, but of course, having seen the gangly youngsters you might not like the idea of eating the adult version!  If you take a lot of people with you – about a dozen might be enough if they have big appetites – you can have an ostrich-egg OMELETTE cooked in a huge paella dish.

They have been having some problems lately, though. There’s a dog rescue place next door, from which the inmates have been escaping and killing the ostriches – presumably the smaller birds, as an adult ostrich has a killer kick.

 OBESITY.  At the risk of OFFENDING some people, I must say a word about this modern plague with which, according to the papers, Spain has a major problem. I’m not talking just nicely rounded or a tad OVERWEIGHT – the number of seriously OBESE people is growing. When you see the piles of unnecessary food they consume you can see why. With apologies to those people with genuine glandular problems, the majority of obesity is caused by eating too much – you don’t see many obese people in a refugee camp. I saw a woman pouring sweetened condensed milk into her child’s feeding cup the other day – what chance has the poor child got?

 OVER-OPTIMISTIC building is another problem here. The construction bubble has burst, leaving rows of houses and apartments unsold and prey to vandalism. And a law - quite a sensible one for once - that forced speculators to install basic amenities such as paved roads and street lights before building homes, rather than selling what they'd built and buggering off, has left our town at least with streets and lamp-standards but no houses where once there was untouched land.

OLIVES. ON special OCCASIONS Geoff and I used to take our children to Al Forno’s in Brighton. We’d always have a pizza which we could see being cooked in the brick OVEN, and Geoff always ate my olives. He wouldn’t get near them now - the olives here are fat, juicy and delicious.