I wrote “White Horses” for one of the Flash! Friday competitions. If you haven’t read it, it’s posted below, with a look at the inspiration behind the story underneath.
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| The prompt - Miranda — The Tempest. Painting by John William Waterhouse, 1916. Public domain photo |
White Horses
Lenie gazed at the waves and imagined Adriaan beside her. In one hand she grasped her hair; broken red strands caught on her wedding ring. In the other she clutched a gold locket her mother found after a tempest ripped apart a merchant ship.
She wanted to believe in happy endings. Like her Adriaan who would become a doctor after almost dying in a shipwreck as a child. Like the tall man on a horse riding into the waves to save those drowning amidst a wreck in roiling waves while clouds poured like devil’s smoke down the mountains.
But other endings also needed remembering.
Like those who nursed broken survivors while the rider grew weary and floundered unseen.
Like brine stinging mortal wounds.
Like shallow graves in fine sand.
Like a body never recovered.
Like those once saved returning to the sea.
Like a figure on horseback dragging Adriaan’s ship beneath the waves.
Like the briny taste of tears.
Behind the Scenes
I really enjoyed putting some local flavour into this story. I didn’t really know where it was going at first, but I knew I wanted to set it on the South African coast without the story sounding too locked in time and place.
Regarding the shipwreck, my first thoughts were of the book Caliban’s Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of HerSurvivors by Stephen Taylor and a description of a shipwreck in DaleneMathee’s Kringe in ’n bos (available in English as Circles in a Forest), but then my brain shifted to the folktale of Van Hunks and the Devil smoking on top of Table Mountain. Their smoke, so the legend goes, causes the blanket of cloud on the mountain. From there it wasn’t a far jump (at least in my mind’s filing cabinet) to a folk hero called Wolraad Woltemade who died saving people from a shipwreck. Wolraad really did ride his horse into the waves to a wreck and perished after saving a number of people.
I didn’t want to include a ghost ship and immediately have the “Flying Dutchman” legend to contend with, so I thought about another way in which a ghost could sink a ship. Okay, and I couldn’t resist having a ghost on a ghost horse sinking ships. I also gave the characters Afrikaans names to link with the legends.
Ps. Also check out Dalene Matthee’s other works (as far as I know they’ve all been translated into various languages). And if you’re ever lucky enough to visit the Garden Route, be sure to go and have a walk in the Knysna Forest. It is truly magnificent.
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