Post by AN OLD MAN ON A SALT MARSH on Feb 21, 2005 11:33:52 GMT -5
Not too long ago, on a dark February eve, I was walking my mutt on the salt marshes of the North Norfolk coast, up near a village called Blakeney. I was trying my best to avoid glancing at the sea – a dangerous, malevolent force, through my mutt insisted on dipping himself in it. Then I was brought up by a strange a sight as ever I did see. A figure in the distance, making his way across the mud-flats drawing a large rowboat behind him. On and on he dragged it, seemingly with no destination or start point. I decided to approach the man and question him. When I drew close I discovered he was an ancient sort of perhaps as many as 70 years. Pulling the vessel took all his strength. At my exclamation, he drew himself up to his full height – at least 6 foot if it were a single foot – and addressed me in a strong North-folk tone (which I won’t attempt to clumsily re-create here). After complimenting me on my mutt, he went on to tell a story of a simple man who lived in a cottage nearby out here on the marshes. The man, it seemed, was having a passionate affair with a lady fifty or sixty years younger. Fifty years, I enquired? It was confirmed. They used to make love out on the sea in a boat. But one nasty evening – much like this one he added – they were surprised by the young woman’s father who, as the man pulled the boat towards the water, young woman sat inside, shot both the lovers through the head, dumped their bodies in the boat and set them out on the ocean to sail and disappear. With this the old man carried onwards, dragging the boat further across the flats towards no destination and I spied in the back of his ancient head – a horrible gunshot wound. Then, in the bottom of the boat, the rotting corpse of a young woman! As the old man dragged the boat further into the distance, he faded from view leaving me standing there agape, shivering with cold fear. I later discovered, not far from there, the foundations of a large cottage in the mud. I have not seen this terrifying vision again as I do not visit the salt marshes near Blakeney anymore – and I suggest you don’t either.