Message In A Bottle ↬Markson

Chapter 1

Mark had decided to go for a walk on the beach to escape the stress of his job. The grocery shop he owns was closed today and there were some rapports and bills he had to work through but he honestly wasn't feeling it.

So here he is, walking on the beach. His bare feet touching the soft warm sand. He breaths in the fresh sea air and he feels himself relax in an instant. There weren't too many people, which he preferred. Don't get him wrong he likes people but not right now. He looks around him and he sees a couple of boats sail by. Two ships are quite small but there's also a big yacht sailing by.

Mark would like to have a boat himself someday. Mostly because he wonders how it feels to be free on the water like that. And also because it'd be really good to be able to say that he owns a boat which he saved up for and finally had the money to buy. 

Mark isn't poor yet he isn't rich. Yes, he has his own store but it's a small one and the costumers are mostly adults who want something special or of good quality. There are also a lot of somewhat older costumers. Mark was thinking of a marketing plan to get younger people to his store and with that he means people under the age of thirty. 

He walks close to the sea and the water would touch his feet sometimes. He was drowned in his thoughts about all the work he still had to do at home, he almost forgot how far from the parking lot he has walked. Yet he decided to walk a little further.

He is abruptly taken away from his thoughts when he something sparkling just a few meters ahead of him. The sparkling object made him curious and so he found himself walking further away from his car and closer to the sparkle, when he reached it, he saw a green glass wine bottle with something in it.

He couldn't exactly tell what it was but he could tell that there was paper in the glass bottle. He picks it up and starts to examine the green bottle some more.

He twists and turns it around to see if he can see anything on the paper. The twisting and turning isn't helping so he decides to take it home and open it there. On the way back to his car he fantasies of what could possibly be in there. 

He walks all the way back to his car, gets in and drives home. During the drive all that occupies his mind is what could possibly on the paper. He is so busy thinking of it that he almost ignores a couple of red stop signs. 

Mark feels like he is in some 90's movie where people would find messages in bottles and in the bottle there would be an important message for them. He gets all excited and really wants to know what's in that goddamn bottle.

Mark finally reaches home after a rather short drive but he felt like it took him ages to get home. He throws his jacket, keys and shoes to the side and walks into the living room.

His mood changes immediately when he sees all the papers that are scattered around on his kitchen table.

"Right.. Those papers." He mumbles to himself and he puts the bottle down on the edge of the table. He gathers all the papers and piles them up so there is enough room on the table. 'I will have time for that later.'

He grabs the bottle again and brings it to the kitchen. He grabs a Stanley knife from his toolbox which he hides in his bottom kitchen drawer. He carefully cuts the duct tape and opens the lid. He then remembers that he won't be able to get the letter out since it's rolled out against the inner glass. That made that he couldn't read what's on the paper.

He sees no other choice then to destroy the bottle. So he walks outside and in front of his door he smashes the bottle on the steps which lead up to the front door.

The green glass breaks into a million little pieces and he crouches down to carefully pick up the letter between the little sharp shaped pieces.

He lifts the paper up and the green pieces fall down on the stone bricks. He goes back inside and reminds himself that he'll clean up the mess later.