Took batteries from abandoned cars and sold them to the owner of the corner shop who’d pay in cash without a word. So when the boys found jewellery on the beach. A necklace, an earring and a bracelet dropped in the soft sand, glinting in the sun. Gold with rubies or sapphires or stones they didn’t know the name of. A full set, almost – as if a gift from the heavens.

And at first they were thrilled – ecstatic, of course. Did cartwheels, wrestled, shouted. Hushed each other only for one of them to start yelping again. But then they became uncomfortable because they looked so shabby and how could they even be in the presence of these things? The jewels shone brightly and here they were, dirty and salty and dishevelled, like they had fallen asleep in a garden bed. The Dead Man had lost his shirt and was sunburned and aching, as though he had been dragged across gravel by his heels. And this is how every day at the beach ended.

But they had a buyer. This here was one hundred car batteries. Maybe a thousand. So the mood lifted again, quickly. The Dead Man used the last of his money to buy drinks from the canteen for his friends in celebration and they sat on a log in the sun, drinking and laughing and dreaming while they passed around the treasure. They did this until night came, when someone had the idea to go to the billiard hall to try to sell the things they had found instead of waiting until morning. Under a full moon, they sang and danced in the street.

At the hall, they agreed that playing a few games would help to avoid raising any suspicion – a couple of games between them and they could start asking around. But the Dead Man was stopped at the door – because he wasn’t wearing a shirt. The others went inside while he waited on a step and, as the night grew late and his friends failed to reappear, slowly began to panic.

…

Tristan Foster is a writer from Sydney, Australia. He is the author of two books, the short story collection Letter to the Author of the Letter to the Father and 926 Years with Kyle Coma-Thompson. Midnight Grotesques, with Michelle Lynn Dyrness, is forthcoming from Sublunary Editions.