“Footprints” • by Robin Blasberg

The air still smelled of salt and the waves still crashed in rhythmic succession. But the boardwalk was empty and the beachgoers had all but disappeared.

It had been a long journey. Nothing had gone as planned, the trip itself having been one of last resort.  

Finally, he could have some peace now. He set out across the sand, leaving behind footprints that would soon be erased by the tide. He steeled himself against the chill of October. Invigorating, he told himself, before plunging into the water.

When he emerged, refreshed, he leaned back and let the ocean’s crisp caress soothe him while the gulls circling overhead provided a hypnotic diversion. Relaxing is what he called it.

But he was floating now without purpose. And as he felt himself being carried out to sea, he knew there would be no one to rescue him.  It was off season, after all.

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You never know when you’ll find yourself adrift. Robin Blasberg has learned the hard way that you need to stay on your toes else you might not make it back to shore.

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to check out “The Night Parade” and “A Sweet Attraction,” also in Stupefying Stories SHOWCASE.

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The Pete Wood Challenge is an informal ad hoc story-writing competition. Once a month Pete Wood spots writers the idea for a story, usually in the form of a phrase or a few key words, along with some restrictions on what can be submitted, usually in terms of length. Pete then collects the resulting entries, determines who has best met the challenge, and sends the winners over to Bruce Bethke, who arranges for them to be published on the Stupefying Stories web site.

You can find all the previous winners of the Pete Wood Challenge at this link.

This time the challenge was to write a flash fiction story of no more than 150 words in length that played off the phrase: “the off season.”