Not Your Problem

The sun was overhead. There wasn’t a shadow in the square. I saw graffiti. She stopped by a shop window, and I kept walking.

“Come on.”

I looked in the shop window too. I saw oil paintings, the harbour, the beach, ruins.

“Aren’t they cute?”

“Great. Now let’s go to the beach. I don’t like it here.”

“But.”

“No buts. Look at the graffiti.”

We tracked out of the square, and onto a bright mosaic path. White-shoed couples sat in the shade, and leaned towards each other talking. We stopped for water. She unhooked the rucksack, and let out a gargle.

“It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?”

But I knew what had gone. In the back pocket of the bag. Her money. Her credit cards. I kicked a date so it flew past the couples who turned away. She slung the bag on her shoulder.

“Stay here.”

“What?”

“I said, stay here.”

Alone, on the beach, I claimed a sun bed and lay down, staring at the underside of the umbrella.

***

I woke up. She was leaning over me. She smiled.

“Cards cancelled. Five Euros missing.”

“Big deal. Sorry I shouted.”

She laughed.

“Sorry I took no notice. At least you never said, ‘I told you so.’”

“Would I?”

I rolled over, and looked along the beach at the other bathers. I saw two men walking towards the sun beds. They stripped off, and sat down. They paid the man for sun beds. One asked the other for a light. They lay back, and turned their baseball caps round, blowing out smoke. They said something, and laughed. Two women on the next beds looked at each other, and rolled onto their fronts. The men stuck out their jaws, and angled themselves to the sun.

The

Ones.

They thought their victims would spend the day in a hot police station filling out forms. They were wrong. I watched, and I waited. The sun dropped low, and cooled. Other bathers rolled up their towels, and left. The man stacked the beds. It was just down to me. I stared. They stared back, and then they looked at each other. They laughed. I sat up, and dug my feet in the warm sand.
She grabbed my arm, and I looked at her.

“What?”

She smiled.

“It’s not your problem.”