'…sometimes the heart of the ice held a frozen moment, suspended in
time, like an old, blurred photograph, and as the ice lost its opacity
the image would develop into increasing clarity: An arctic tern caught
in mid-flight, its beady eye still holding a look of perplexity. A
shoal of herring looking strangely fast and fluid even in their cold
entombment. A hen’s egg. What looked like a dead, furless animal, but
was later discovered to be an old bible belonging to one Archelaus
Israel hailing from Plymouth....
 ... And once, famously, there was a mermaid, complete with her trousseau of comb, mirror and knife.
She looked passionate, and vengeful.
It seems that the sea had frozen over while she waited for the return of her treacherous human lover....'
Taken from the short story 'ICE' by Mercedes Kemp.
|
