Stijena koja je otišla

Još niže Polly se spusti dovoljno da upozna susjeda. U vodi, tako blizu da joj se čini kako bi mogla doklizati do njega, stoji osamljen toranj blijede stijene, a more se oko njegova podnožja razbija u bijelu pjenu. Zove se Zrno pijeska, što je šala, jer je otprilike velik kao mala crkva.

Further down still, Polly comes down far enough to meet a neighbor. Standing out in the water, close enough that she feels she could glide to it, is a single tower of pale rock with the sea breaking white around its foot. It is called the Grain of Sand, which is a joke, because it is roughly the size of a small church.

Nije uvijek bio ondje vani. Prije otprilike osamsto godina bio je dio ove litice, spojen s njom, sasvim običan. Onda su valovi dovršili posao na kojem su radili ispod njega, spojna stijena je nestala, a toranj je ostao sam usred mora. Polly ga neko vrijeme promatra. Dolje je tanji nego gore. More još radi.

It has not always been out there. About eight hundred years ago it was part of this cliff, joined on, ordinary. Then the waves finished the job they had been working at underneath it, and the connecting rock went, and the tower was left standing alone in the sea. Polly looks at it for a while. It is thinner at the bottom than at the top. The sea is still working.

Pokraj nje u visini očiju proleti galeb, i njega vrijedi promatrati. Nije jedan od onih glasnih koji prate brodove i kradu pomfrit s lučkog zida. Ovo je Audouinov galeb i on se uopće ne hrani otpacima. Živi od pučine, lovi ribu, što je za galeba gotovo stvar načela.

A gull comes past at eye level, and this one is worth watching. It is not one of the loud ones that follow boats and steal chips from the harbor wall. This is an Audouin's gull, and it does not scavenge at all. It makes its living out at sea, hunting fish, which for a gull is almost a matter of principle.

Odleti preko tjesnaca sa svjetlom iza sebe, dok ga Polly ne izgubi iz vida. Ona opet pogleda samotnu stijenu i procjep između nje i litice, i pomisli kako je taj procjep nekoć bio čvrsti kamen preko kojeg je netko mogao prijeći pješice.

It goes out over the strait with the light behind it until Polly loses it. She looks back at the standing rock, and at the gap between it and the cliff, and thinks about how that gap was once solid stone that somebody could have walked across.