Hallam's Return

Hallam sat under a red umbrella at Noonie's drinking his Farmers Union Iced Coffee.

This would be perfect, he thought to himself, if only they'd turn off that music.

It was the sort of music that reminded him of his first wife Audrey. And he didn't particularly want to be reminded of her. She was another achiever. She had successfully fought to get the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital built in Rose Park. And what had he fought to get built? Nothing.

He got up quickly and walked back to the pathway through the dunes. It led behind Fort Glanville past low green bushes full of violet moths, and ended on an access path to the beach, where there was an interpretive sign, explaining the loss of seagrass.

Hmmm, thought Hallam, there seems to be plenty of seagrass here today, although it's dead and in heaps. He felt pleased with himself for thinking this. He walked back onto the beach.

The sea was still joined indistinguishably to the sky at the horizon and was the colour of a mirror out there, but at the curve of the bay where it disappeared into the houses it was sapphire blue. Somewhere in between at the edge of the sand walked two figures, a man and a girl. The man was in a red top with blue cut-off jeans and the girl was in white, with grey shorts.

Hallam kept walking. The seagrass heaps looked benign now that they had dried. They looked like little tuffets you could sit on. And they didn't smell as bad.

He was gradually catching up with the man and the girl. It wasn't a man, he realised, but a taller woman. She had blonde hair caught up in a twist, and was more shapely than when he had thought he might be drawing level with himself.