Day 627

Mersea is only an island by technicality. Overall its population is divided between the two villages on either side and sparse houses between. East Mersea  by the River Colne and West Mersea by the River Blackwater. Beyond that is the North Sea and all the creatures within.

The road onto Mersea is said to flood twice a day, becoming lost to the sea's tide. Not that the residents mind it much - they've grown so used to it they could tell you when the next tide is due without a second thought. It's as stable a part of their lives as Sundays at church is.

Until the tide came in and didn't leave. Until they came to know what it means to be an island with limited resources and too many people to share them with. Until the tide fled five months later leaving the chaos it created behind.

It hasn't been the same since, anyone there'll tell you that. They used to catch fish and sell them - it was one of the main sources of income on the island and a staple of their residence. Now they'll only say that there's something in the water and it's corrupted the fish.

They said that anyone who tried to sail over the road or anywhere from Mersea to mainland was brought back by some reason or other, be it by harsh winds, rough tides or something that looked like an enormous webbed hand grasping the sides of their boat and gently but firmly pushing it back ashore.

When the tides eventually receded Mersea was found to have adapted all too eagerly to the sea-imposed routine. Their newly elected mayor, a charismatic local by the name of Keenan Blythegood, had quickly formed a new order of business practically reverting them all back to the middle ages. The elderly, sick or weak were locked up or killed so the food went to "good and honest workers" while going to the sea or anywhere near a boat was expressly forbidden.

From what they said whatever seemed to be lurking in the watery region around them wasn't exactly harmful, it was more like a sheepdog than monster. Sure it kept them all trapped on an island with no hope of sustaining them but it did provide them with viable food options. The fish was the first thing to be tested and found to be perfectly edible, higher levels of omega oils than was usual but it could have been down to a local mutation.

With no images of this alleged guiding hand, the entire thing was dismissed as a freak weather occurrence and Mersea was very much ignored from then on. It became a joke to the rest of England that the sea folk had just spent too much time among the fish and saw them everywhere.

Truth isn't too far from it, after all they don't use their boats any more.
The hand provides, as the saying goes.
Though none of them eat the fish they seem awfully keen to sell them.