Scattering the Ashes

Text 1: Two Left, by Rhys Kendrew

An original short story extract.

Dylan rowed, because Dylan had always rowed, and Cerys sat in the stern with the urn between her knees and watched the harbour wall slide away behind his shoulders. Neither of them spoke. They had not spoken properly in nine years, not since the argument about the farm, and the funeral had not changed that. The oars creaked in the rowlocks. Creak, splash. Creak, splash.

Their father’s boat smelled the way it always had, of tar and bait and the peppermints he kept in a tin under the thwart. Cerys found the tin with her foot. It rattled. Two left. She did not say anything, but she saw Dylan’s eyes go to it, and then quickly away, out to the grey line of the horizon, as if something out there needed his attention.

Past the point, the swell lifted them, gently, and set them down. Dylan shipped the oars. The silence after the creaking was enormous. Cerys unscrewed the lid and stood, and the boat tipped, and Dylan reached out without thinking and caught her wrist to steady her. His hand was rough and warm and exactly like their father’s. For a moment neither of them let go. Then the wind took the ashes out of the urn in one long pale breath, and laid them on the water, and Dylan said, very quietly, ‘Give us a peppermint, then.’

How does Rhys Kendrew use language and structure to show the relationship between Cerys and Dylan?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.