and then I apply sunscreen, SPF 120, and get in my boat to row to work. The sun shines harshly, the former shifting of seasons done, leaves permanently burnt on twisted limbs, green growth relegated to the tops of tides. I see three stickleback fish, seven pikeminnow and one remora searching for a host on my way.
My office is on an island, manmade, devoid of flora. The gulls make their homes on cement.
The monsters leave us alone in the shallows, but the shallows have been getting deeper.
At my desk, I send emails to people who send emails back requiring another email, sometimes two. At noon, we retreat to the basement, where we’re protected from the sun’s harshest rays. Lunch today is rice and watercress, again. After lunch, there are more emails and follow-ups and circle-backs. I do not know what it is we sell.
The journey home takes longer than the one to work; the island has drifted slightly south during the day. We work from dawn until dusk and travel when the light is faint. The risk of sunburn is less then, but there is still enough light that the monsters rarely surface. Perhaps they cannot differentiate between the dark of their world and ours in the night. Perhaps there is none.
My family’s home is on land that the old maps show as distant, dry. The waves lap my front porch. It won’t have the chance to fall in.
For dinner, I sleep.
I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I mourn, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I ruminate, I rally, I email, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I hide, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep. I wake, I row, I email, I hide, I email, I row, I sleep a fevered sleep of nightmares, jaw clenched, muscles tight, skin slick, body tense against the horrors of my mind reflecting the days unfolding in front of me, without my approval, change barreling forward without stop.
I wake.
There is water outside my window. There is darkness.
And the monster is drawing near.