Two days, one yellow table

Six illustrated pages about a quiet weekend. Read it, print it, or change the words.
Original fiction. The people, place and memories are invented; the pictures are illustrations.

A weekend in Bellwether

Two days,
one yellow
table.

Saturday & Sunday
A small book by Rowan

The yellow table by the harbour windowOriginal illustration: two white cups, an orange and a notebook on a yellow table. Beyond an open-curved window latch is a blue boat in a grey-green harbour.
An illustrated keepsake · original fiction01

Saturday · late morning

We had a plan.
It was outside.

The bus brought us into Bellwether in the rain. June had one bag. I had one bag and a notebook with “walk to the far pier” already written in it.

At Dock House, the key had a wooden tag. Our room had a yellow table, two white cups and a window facing the harbour. We put the bags down.

Arriving with a small bagOriginal illustration: a dark green overnight bag beside a wooden-tagged room key, with a loose line suggesting the harbour edge. Not a map.
Bellwether · Saturday & Sunday02

Saturday · at the window

Three oranges.
No hurry.

Three oranges and the interrupted peelOriginal illustration: a brown paper bag holding two oranges, a partly peeled third orange, and the broken peel loosely coiled across a yellow table.

We bought three oranges in a paper bag and made tea. I tried to take the peel off the first orange in one piece. It broke near the bottom. June left it in a loose coil on the table.

Rain ran down the glass. The blue boat stayed where it was.

Bellwether · Saturday & Sunday03

Saturday · three attempts

“That one
might float.”

Three attempts at the same blue boatOriginal illustration: three slightly different notebook sketches of a blue boat. The last is the widest. Original drawings, not photographs.

I drew the blue boat three times. The third drawing was wider than the first. June gave it the most encouraging review.

When the rain stopped, we went down to the near quay. There were ropes, the boat, and enough of the afternoon left to look at them. The far pier stayed in the notebook.

Bellwether · Saturday & Sunday04

Sunday · clear

The same window.
Different water.

Sunday on the near quayOriginal illustration: a blue boat on silver-green water beside a curved quay, a coiled rope and a striped pebble left on the ground.

By morning the harbour was silver. We split the second orange and drank tea at the yellow table. June said, “We can come back when it’s raining.”

On the quay I found a striped pebble and left it there.

Bellwether · Saturday & Sunday05

Sunday · going home

What came
home with us.

The third orange, still whole. A grocery receipt with an orange stain. Three drawings of a boat, none entirely convincing.

Before we left, I noticed two faint cup rings on the yellow table. The walk to the far pier would have to wait. We took the afternoon bus home.

The things that came homeOriginal illustration: a notebook with a stained grocery receipt and three boat sketches, and a whole orange. No invented prices or shop name.