{"id":1946,"date":"2013-03-25T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T03:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=1946"},"modified":"2017-08-08T19:50:07","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T19:50:07","slug":"a-toe-in-the-water-by-renay-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/a-toe-in-the-water-by-renay-allen\/","title":{"rendered":"A Toe in the Water by Renay Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"waves\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

A Toe in the Water<\/h1>\n

by Renay Allen<\/p>\n

I step to the seashore. It\u2019s raining\u2026 again. Froth lingers at the edge, discoloured a putrid yellow as if the waves have been out on the town and drunk a little too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019cha doing girl?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to find a way not to go back. You would think I\u2019d be ready by now, that I\u2019d be used to getting the call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSinging the blues ain\u2019t gonna change things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I avoid answering another second, and another, am I not forcing events to be different?\u201d Waves lapped over my toes, ridiculing my pathetic efforts to defy the inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll just drag ya back; not the type to let go easily is he.\u201d<\/p>\n

I watched him step onto the rocks, joining the crabs and tiny molluscs sheltering in the pools hidden by mist. Too close, my black haired one. So far away. \u201cFresh water and brine, the pair of ya. Got too much a mind of ya own. That\u2019s your problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not understood anything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never leave ya muddled,\u201d he said gruffly.<\/p>\n

\u201cPromise?\u201d<\/p>\n

He grunted and faced me. \u201cTell me \u2018I do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water rises.\u201d I sighed and braced myself, or let go, sinking down into the sand as it slipped away beneath me. \u201cWhat would you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHang out with someone who doesn\u2019t have a massive stick up his butt.\u201d<\/p>\n

I dipped down, and let the torrent take me. \u201cMaybe fisherman, but if he hears you cast your line like that, you might discover my father\u2019s trident finding yours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I step to the seashore. It?s raining? again. Froth lingers at the edge, discoloured a putrid yellow as if the waves have been out on the town and drunk a little too much<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[361,273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sea-stories","category-short-short"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}