short fiction · 2026-10-18

Whispers in Steel

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

Inside a container bound for Rotterdam, a seam of rust hid a folded piece of notebook paper, its edges softened by salt. On it, a child's hand had drawn a lighthouse, its beam sweeping over waves that curled like sleeping cats. Beneath the sketch, in uneven script, read: 'I wish the sea would sing me to sleep.' The ink had bled where rain had leaked through a pinhole, turning the wish into a watermark. When the container was lifted onto the ship, the paper shifted, catching a slant of morning light that made the lighthouse glow for a heartbeat before the darkness of the hold swallowed it again.