5/10/2023 0 Comments The lighthouse keeper short story![]() But he too refrained from touching the railing. ‘I’m a coming,’ George said again, resuming the long march upwards. Placing his hand on the shallow ceiling for support, he avoided grabbing the brass handrail. ![]() ‘It’ll be dark and the bloody light still won’t be lit.’ He spun on his heels and almost overbalanced. And, somehow, that always made George feel better. But rather than give in to it, Stan laughed instead. Impossible, George had answered over and over, yet he suspected that the fear remained. He’d been afraid, George had sensed, although the question had always been put light heartedly. He remembered how Stan, when he was new to the service, had asked a number of times whether the lighthouse might topple in a gale. Clouds whirled at dizzying speed and below the waves churned, seeming to double in size as he watched. But instead he stopped and looked through the small window. ‘I’m a coming,’ the older keeper muttered. He gazed down at George, who was following behind him. Something big was on its way and no messing. ‘Come on, slow coach.’ Stan’s voice was loud, jovial, bouncing off the rough granite and echoing up the tower until it was swallowed by the growing sound of the wind. Isolated, indistinct, hovering somewhere between sea and sky, an as-yet unlit beacon of hope and salvation, it waited in the gathering darkness for its keepers to go to work. Ten miles from shore, perched on the low black rock, the lighthouse was a hazy smudge of white in the gloaming. ![]() Short story about friendship between lighthouse keepers by Melissa Bailey, whose novel Beyond the Sea came out earlier this year.
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