Fading Light at Charmouth

The sky was darkening with the same colours that were silky smooth in the sea, everything had a pearly quality, and the one little family that still remained on the beach, having had been so long absorbed by their labours, began excited attempts to redirect the bubbling waters that now threatened to sweep them away. As I watched, the bright colours of the children’s clothing and plastic buckets faded, the little family hardly there at all as the sky became heavier, the sea looked dark and cold and the last glow from the horizon lit small random puddles of water collecting around the odd stone that had resisted the undertow.