Fishing

In the warmest interior of a cold January afternoon, we sat around a glass dining
table dining on seafood. Just four hours ago, I had left our wooden
home in the salty and sterile nature reserve in the shadow of Dungeness
nuclear power station to catch the feast, leaving my companions
drinking cold beer in the pub where they often collected money for
Chernobyl children.

The day was raw and my fingers red from the salt stripped ropes and
nets and I turned my collar up from the spray when I drew up the anchor
and set off in search of food, memories and the fictional desire for a
fishing trip.

Gull cries are lonely and no chink of light caressed the stern through
the heavy clouds, thick like the migraine of the gods. I took a long a sip of warmth
from a hip flask stowed neatly in my oilskin before casting down my
trawling net, its seaweed entwined, orange nylon twine disappearing
beneath the swirling waves.

I'm not sure why I always licked my hands to taste the salt. It's like I
was checking to make sure it was still there. Then with one last
assault on my hands I would withdraw the net and dump my writhing catch
on the deck. I was fascinated by the rich diversity of life; the
aubergine-coloured brittlestars and orange starfish. The Echinoderms
were my favourite but you can't eat them so reluctantly I would throw
them back in keeping only the plaice and other substantial
morsels.

Laden with a live cargo that would feed us four poverty stricken
academics I returned to the shoreline, where on this day, my friends were waiting for me. On the slippy wooden veranda we emptied
our treasure and counted the pearls.

So as we sat eating that night we debated and discussed what our
mysterious finding could possibly be. Since we had bailed out of our
interesting yet tiring jobs and taken (very) early retirement to this
far-flung corner of the Kent coast we had spent many nights debating
many weird and wonderful subjects.

Never before though had they had something as solid to discuss as this
outlandish egg I had trawled in from the ocean depths. It was warm to my touch and utterly impenetrable.