The tide seeped away, grey water into black sand. It left her lime-green boots uncovered, anomalous. Just as well, thought Sarosh, turning her back on the sea. This planet could use some color. As it had used Richard, used her dreams; swallowed them whole, and left nothing but little grains of sand that stuck to everything, fell off everywhere. She kicked the sand as she walked, and it spurted grudgingly before her feet.
At her back, the little love-lorn birds took up their plaintive cries, did their graceful runs and leapt ungainly into the air. ‘Just what the planet needs,’ she’d told him when he sent the first vid, ‘moaning birds that can hardly fly.’ He’d only laughed. ‘I like it,’ he’d said. ‘It reminds me to be lonely.’ She was lonely now.
…
“To the Wild Sea”
About the story: A story about assimilation and loneliness.