Whale tail on a finger
Fine line · Hand · Black and grey · Photo
A small whale tail fluke sits on the side of a finger, drawn in dark ink with fine outlines and soft grey shading on the fins. The tattoo is shown in sharp focus against a dark background, with a thin chain across the back of the hand and blue nail polish visible on the fingertips.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Tomasz,
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The dust came over the Hanwell road again on Tuesday and I had to sweep the step twice before the bread van could get up to the door. Mr Oakes still runs the filling station with the radio on all day, and he asked after you, which surprised me. He says he remembers the bloke who carried a whale fluke up the high street on his shoulder in 1961. I told him that was your grandfather, not you, and he said it was the same thing.
Nothing much else has happened. The creek behind the church has turned to a crack in the mud, and the heron that used to stand in it has moved on to the reservoir at Ballard. I have been going down most evenings anyway, sitting on the concrete lip where the water used to be, which is silly at my age.
The thing I actually meant to write about is the postcard you sent from Reykjavik, the one with the tails rising out of grey water. You wrote that the men on the boat lifted their hands to the ones that dove, and that you had started doing it too, without thinking, like a superstition. I have propped it against the tea caddy. Last night I held it up to the window, and the sea looked less like water than a sheet of slate, and I thought of how far from anything your boat must be.
Come home when the rains do. Bring the ink. I will make the tea strong and we can argue about whether a whale knows its own name.
Love, Nan
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