About this story
Gormala MacNiel, the gaunt woman the village avoids, tells you Second Sight has chosen you as its witness, then names her own vision's subject: Lauchlane Macleod, a fisherman you have just met at the pier. She asks you to remember a rock, a tide, and a golden moon; by the tide she named, his boat has not come back.
How it opens
You had barely returned to Cruden Bay when a gaunt older woman began watching from across the road.
Hotel LandlordShe comes from Peterhead, buys nothing, sells nothing, and asks more with her eyes than her tongue.
A man and two women passed together beneath the trees while you rested near the bridge.
Child's MotherCome along; the harbour tide will turn before we finish our errand.
Choose
Tell her the image exactly as it appeared.
Say only that the light confused distance.