The glow from the distant street lamp reflected off the rain soaked cement pathway leading the way to the night ferry.
With little else illuminated it was easy to see the outline of a large fig tree with its shape and branches stretching across the roadway. The outline of a wrought iron fence with its uneven and occasional missing spear shaped finials and the street's stone and concrete guttering combined to give the leading line of where to walk.
The now required hurried steps are echoing off the walls of the buildings and announce the lone presence. But they were required because the night ferry did not linger.
The outgoing tide was not long away and it would mean a challenge to control crossing the black water. The darkness would conceal currents from narrow channels that would push against the hull. And not only hold on to its progress but there was always another risk. Always that it could be caught and held by a treacherous unseen wave to be drawn down fully by a rapidly formed vortex of the tidal bore.
Coming to the terminal gate was a relief as it gave a sense of safety being close, although not just yet.
Turning past the gate post to walk down the rampway came the shock.
There was no ferry waiting, no one assembled to board, the place was abandoned. The little shelter shed halfway down the runway lit by its single light had no strangers waiting and was empty. While beyond the shed the ferry plankway with its barely viable single railing barely lit by a single lamp, revealing nothing but a slowly blinking navigation light.
All this was the only scene to greet and suddenly the inky blackness of water beyond and the surrounding darkness of the night began to feel like a strangling presence. Primal fears began to rise. Alone, isolated, the dangers of this place began to play on the mind, any and every sound became more noticeable then disappeared.
Where was the night ferry? Had it come and gone or was the time wrong? Was the ferry cancelled for some reason? Or worse had there been something else and the ferry would never come? The questions, fed by fear came quickly, and it was getting late.
With these questions also came the feeling of dread.
Soon would need the decision. To continue to wait or to think of leaving to walk back along the abandoned streets and to find some other way.
(Words and Images, © Copyright Kevin Palmer 2024)