SEA DEFENCES

Nothing would grow on their land after the first time it happened. Then, just as the green shoots were appearing and everyone went about wreathed in smiles, it happened again. Mother went mad afterwards. Father tried to console her, said they'd buy some livestock and she'd laughed hysterically at him, mouth drawn back over teeth, a snarling expression.
"With what? And they'd live on what? Air? We never should have come here, I shouldn't even listen to you, you're a dreamer! Useless, useless, useless man!"
She'd got up with the dawn. Later they'd found the single set of footprints leading towards the sea, being erased by incoming waves.

Now the boy repaired the sea defences with his grandfather. The old man was still strong at seventy years old. He hauled sandbags as a man of thirty might, plugging gaps with them, carrying on tirelessly while all along the coast their neighbours did the same. He caught the boy staring at the dark clouds piling in from the west, the distant waves and the shivering sand. He clipped his ear. "No daydreaming!"
"When's Dad coming back? Why isn't he helping?"
"He'll be back in the morning with a sore head and no more money. He doesn't see the point in this. He doesn't think sea defences work."
"I think he's right. They didn't work last time."
"Not for the land, but they saved the house didn't they? Tide didn't come up as far as the first time. If we don't try, we don't improve." The old man slammed a sandbag on top of the wall with a frustrated air, then poked the boy's  forehead roughly, "in here's where you want your sea defences, if you believe the sea can win, it will."
The boy rubbed his head sulkily and turned away to look at the darkening sky.

The old man thought of his son and daughter-in-law, they hadn't been strong enough to face things through. He wondered if the boy would turn out just the same. The boy thought of his mother, would they find her body and which way would she be facing? Did she change her mind when the tide turned and the sand shifted? Did she struggle as the ground beneath her gave way and her feet began to sink? Would they find her facing seawards in peaceful acceptance or frozen in panic towards the salt poisoned barren land?