The Tide
MOTE Week 28, 2026
This week on MOTE, I failed to send in a prompt, so grabbed a spare: The tide came in much faster than anyone expected.
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They had wanted to go to Golden Sands for decades, but it was such a popular resort that it had been out of their price range. Finally, with an inheritance from her parents they had been able to afford to rent hotel rooms for a week, for themselves and their four kids.
They had arrived at the resort mid-afternoon and after an evening meal had gone straight to bed. The next morning started with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Julie and Neville corralled together the kids and everything they would need for an enjoyable experience on the beach.
The receptionist saw them as they walked through the lobby. “Have you been here before?”
“This is our first time,” replied Neville.
“Then I would advise you not to go beyond the point. You’ll see people heading out there, but it’s only really safe if you know the tides.”
They headed out. The hotel was on the top of a cliff with a wonderful view of the beach and sea below. The path down was broad and easy. The sand on the beach below was golden and fine, sloping shallowly to where the waves endlessly advanced and retreated.
The beach was busy, much too busy. It was going to be difficult to find enough space to put everything out. But to the left, beyond the point, the sand was much less busy.
They had been warned not to go there, but the sea was a long way out, and they had plenty of time to relocate once the tide turned. So beyond the point they went.
Julie and Neville unpacked as the kids went down the beach to swim in the sea. Over the rest of the morning the family swam, played boule and sunbathed.
Near midday, the beach beyond the point emptied. Everyone else was heading back to the main beach. Neither Julie nor Neville thought anything of it. Yes, the tide was coming in, the waves were getting closer, but they still had time to head back before it was too late.
Suddenly Julie looked up and was shocked to see that the waves were much closer. It seemed as though one wave had barely started to retreat back down the beach before the next wave swept past it.
She panicked. There was no way back up the cliffs this side of the point. They needed to get back around the point before the sea reached it. She didn’t know how high the sea reached at high tide, but if it got past the point there would be no way for them to get off the beach.
She alerted Neville, and the pair of them hurriedly packed everything up. They then summoned the kids, and started back. They were just in time.
By the time the family had reached the hotel, the sea had risen to beyond the point, and was already almost at the cliffs. If they had been caught ... If they had been caught they were unlikely to have got out alive.
Shocked, Julie and Neville took the family to the hotel restaurant. They wouldn’t head down to the beach that afternoon. They wouldn’t head down again until they knew the times of the tides.
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Join us over at MOTE. I’m looking forwards to reading what everyone produces this week.