Malediction
Katie Coleman
After we pilfered fragments of ceramics from the ancient city of Pompeii our tour guide whispered we were cursed, after we returned to the Midlands we drove through the moors past cottages and hedgerows where we stopped and skimmed stones in the heather, after we rocked up at the Ladybower Reservoir and saw the remains of the drowned village emerging from the silt, after we danced on a cracked mosaic of mud that felt as firm as a frozen pond, after we drew our initials on rooftops in permanent marker, after a Jack Russell flashed past like a burst of lightning and you whisked me off my feet and lifted me high above your head with your arms locked out, after you shared your secrets I felt a jolt in my stomach and a mudhole opened up and drank you in, after I lay wide as a snow angel across the dimpled surface, after I lost my grip on your silken skin and Poseidon creaked inside the cold wet mud.
Katie Coleman’s short fiction is published in Bending Genres and Potato Soup Journal. She has a master’s in creative writing and works as a teacher in Phuket, Thailand. She can be found on Twitter @anjuna2000.