Litigium

There was once a peaceful little village nestled on the coast at the base of a hill. The village had beautiful westward views over the sea and the mud flats, and everyone loved living there. All except one old man who refused to live in the village. He built his cottage set apart on the windy slopes of the hill. H e wasn’t from the village but came there after the war. Walked with a limp. Always wore a naval cap. Nobody knew much about him, but letters were addressed to him as ‘Capt.’ So everyone called him 'the Captain'. His cottage was full of books and old maps. You could often see the light shining deep into the night as he read them, plotted, and made notes. The villagers didn’t really like him. They would mutter that he thought himself too high and mighty to live among them. One day, as he was collecting more maps from the village post office, he was overheard warning the grocer that the village could be washed away by the sea. “It’s happened before and it will ...