Explosives in the Fishing Net by Swetha Amit
I saw him fishing in his boat. I watched him from the shore while my dog was burrowing sand and barking at the tiny crabs. Not because I was suspicious. I just happened to stumble upon this tucked away cove on my morning walk and was fascinated with how sea life was captured in a net. The man shuffled in his boat. I wasn't sure if he was impatient or bored of his routine. He appeared to take out something from his trouser pocket and tap on it furiously. I watched him press the keys of his phone and place them near his ear. His lips moved furiously. The sound of his voice was drowned by the gentle brush of the waves on the shore.
I watched another boat arrive, anchored by a man with a long beard and observed him hand the man in a boat a net filled with strange-looking creatures. I squinted to see that they weren't fish or wriggling crustaceans. I watched the boat with the bearded man become a dot on the mass of waves. I saw the man dip his hand into the net and take out something and hold it up in the air. Sounds of gunshots reverberated in the air, along with the cries of the birds. I watched my dog crouch in terror while I covered my mouth with my hands, stifling the screams that would travel across the sound of the waves. I quickly left the shore, praying silently that my traces would be washed by the sea. I returned to the world of crowded streets, shouting vendors, and the incessant honking of cars.
After a few days, this noisy world would be reduced to nothing but rubble. I'd watch the news about masked men ravaging the city with explosives. I'd later learn how the cops failed to heed the fishermen's complaints about suspicious activity in the waters. I'd cringe in guilt, thinking about the burden I'll always carry on my shoulders for not speaking up. I feared they wouldn't believe a naïve adolescent girl.
“I decided to trash this piece as it was based on an incident that happened many years ago in a city in India. I wasn't sure if people would relate to it. Though it's a global phenomenon.”
Author of her memoir- ‘A Turbulent Mind-My journey to Ironman 70.3’, Swetha Amit is currently pursuing her MFA at University of San Francisco. She has published her works in Atticus Review, JMWW journal, Oranges Journal, Gastropoda Lit, Full House literary, Amphora magazine, Grande Dame literary journal, Black Moon Magazine, Fauxmoir lit mag, Poets Choice anthology, and has upcoming pieces in Drunk Monkeys, Agapanthus Collective, The Creative Zine, and Roi Faineant Press. She is one of the contest winners of Beyond words literary magazine, her piece upcoming in November. She is also, alumni of Tin House Winter Workshop 2022 and the Kenyon Review Writers’ workshop 2022.