Friday Flash – The Cop

The Cop

One day I asked him: How do you cope?

He showed me his basement, a well-lit, clean and empty space. Against the back wall was a sea-chest, the old type with iron straps and reinforced corners. The padlock was as big as my fist.

‘I go through it, now and again’ he said. A key hung on a nail. ‘Go ahead, take a look.’

Alf sat forwards, ‘And did you?’

‘I didn’t need to. There was a luggage label on the handle, brown card, tied with a bit of string. On it he’d written, “Not Needed On Voyage.”’

~

Number 17 in the ‘Beyond the Streets‘ sequence.