Voitkevitch from Pexel
by Brett Pribble
The man with the metal detector roams the beach as dead fish pile on the shore, the ocean boiling red with toxins as the sun spews radiation like a nuclear reactor. He ignores it and sweeps aside carcasses of crabs with his feet, tossing plastic lids and containers behind him for seagulls to choke on, oil seeping from his skin. A boy has built a sandcastle with spirals and moats crafted to perfection. The man runs and kicks it, so sand whips into the boy’s face.
The man drops to his knees and digs, tears through the moat until the ground quakes and a three-foot hole looms before him. He digs until oil squirts from the ground, digs beyond the oil, digs until he reaches a beating heart, which he holds above his head then bites into, munching until he’s consumed every bit.
Brett Pribble’s work has appeared in Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, decomP, Stirring: A Literary Collection, Saw Palm, The Molotov Cocktail, Five on the Fifth, Maudlin House, and other places. He is the editor-in-chief of Ghost Parachute. Follow him on Twitter @brettpribble.
