Saltwater

Meena has spent three decades refusing the sea. She keeps her nets folded, her door open, and a ledger of everything the water has taken from her family. Then one morning, after a storm that keeps the boats inland for a week, a young man walks up the beach carrying her husband's brass compass.

He has no memory of how he found it, and no interest in the reward she can afford. Over the next three days, Meena is forced to decide whether the object is an answer, a debt, or simply the sea being careless again.