“There wasn’t some family willing to do this?” Beverly came with me to inventory Capt. Roth’s house.
“He had a daughter, but she hadn’t talked to him in years, and she didn’t want anything to do with all of this.” I stifled a sneeze. The dust we were raising was killing my nose.
A retired charter captain, Roth’s house was packed with old gear from his fleet of fishing boats.
“What are you going to do with it?” Opening a rusty tackle box, Bev picked up one of the captain’s hand-painted lures.
“The fishing museum in town is interested in some of the older pieces,” I took the lure carefully, trying not to get snagged with a barbed hook. “The other stuff, I’m going to put on eBay. Whatever I earn, I’ll donate to Hospice.”
A dozen, barnacle crusted crab traps lined the front porch, and a dozen more rods and reels were stacked against the wall by the front door.
“What was he really like?” Bev moved on to untangling float lines, and sorting out any broken glass globes.
I had to think about that for a moment. I only knew the captain for a few years after he retired, but he was a harbor fixture as far back as I could remember. When he moved next door, it was like having a celebrity in the neighborhood.
People always asked me about him, whether he told us stories of his nautical adventures. I remembered how outlandish he was when I saw him at the marina. Part huckster, part circus ringmaster, part storyteller, in reality he was a reclusive wretch.
“By the time he retired, his family had already left him,” I sat on the floor, the paltry evidence of his life spread out round me. “He put so much of himself into his charters, was so much a part of the sea, that he had nothing left for anyone else. His life was as hollow as those buoys.”
Thin spiral notebook 
Good story. An interesting tale of excessive dedication to a career.
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So vivid! you really put us in that room; I could just about feel the textures and smell the lingering sea scent. The storyline was not tangled in those boxes or line though- you put the idea of respect from/towards family vs job and ‘status’ into great context. Thank you for sharing this.
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First, Your picture is beautiful. Second, This story reminds me of the elderly man that lived down the street from me growing up. So sad…
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Vivid pictures in my mind as I read this – well done, you. Really well done.
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That is such a gorgeous photo. I love how you come up with very different stories and characters and yet they fit the prompts so well. Sorta feel sorry for the old guy. And sad for his daughter.
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Love the pic and really enjoyed the story. I felt present in that room, going through his things.
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Oh, loved this! What a great use of hollow. And such an interesting character and intrigue here. Hope you pursue him further!
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I totally believed you were actually doing this until I got to the hollow part. It’s very well written, and it resonates with truth.
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You wrote a wonderful tale, I love how you described the mans porch with crab traps and fishing gear! The picture is extremely vivid, nice shot..
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Rich emotional tale of a life lived wrong. I like the descriptions and the last paragraph is vintage Tar Rah – awesome.
Great picture.
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