Jay’s hand was warm on Kelly’s shoulder. She looked in the mirror and he was there, smiling. Like this it wasn’t so bad, she thought. She’d thought it would be worse to have a haunted heart. Jay’s hand tightened and her breath came quicker. Then slowed. And stopped.
Moments
Jen biroed a map
Jen biroed a map on the back of Magda’s hand and walked away smiling. Magda stayed sitting in the park, hand in her jacket hidden from the rain. Then she thought twice and licked the ink away. Her hand was red from rubbing but now her eyes were dry.
Outside the vet’s
There’s a bedraggled but waggly queue outside the vet’s.
A woman in white inhales deeply and opens the glass door.
Only the dogs move.
A waterslide in the desert
“You’re as much use as a waterslide in the desert!”
“Oh, don’t start.”
“Well, you make me so angry!”
“Well….” (He grins.)
“It’s not funny.” (But she smiles.)
“Well…. In the desert….” (He grins again.)
“Stop it! I’m fluming – fuming….” (She tries not to laugh.)
(They kiss. They make up.)
A coincidence. However….
Jazz found that massage table groans can easily be misinterpreted. It was a coincidence that he moaned as the masseur told him he was “quite muscly”. However….
As the lights went out, everything changed
“As the lights went out, everything changed.”
Andi sighed and threw the book across the room. The standard lamp fell, flickered once and died. Darkness flowed across the floor and up the walls. The room was dark, dark with the furred black that swallows the light.
The clock ticked once. Andi waited for the tock but the soft thick darkness swallowed the sound. Then, shockingly, there was a sudden light, and Andi realised everything had changed.
Published on paragraphplanet.com 10 February 2015
Dark in the summer
“Shall we go to Francavilla in the summer?”
“Are there caves there?”
“Yes, there are caves there.”
“Ok then, let’s go.”
“But we can’t go now. We’ll go in the summer.”
“Can we see the caves in the summer?”
“Yes, that’s right. We’ll see the caves in the summer.”
“But we can’t go now?”
“No, we can’t go now. In the summer.”
“See the caves in the summer.”
“Yes, that’s right darling. We’ll see the caves in the summer.”
“Is it dark in the caves in the summer?”
“No, there are lights in the caves.”
“In the winter too?”
“Yes, I think so. In the winter too. There are always lights in the caves.”
“But it mustn’t be dark in the summer.”
“Well, sometimes it’s dark in the summer. It’s dark at night, you remember, and it’s dark in the caves if they didn’t have lights.”
“But they have lights in the caves?”
“Yes, they have lights in the caves.”
“In the summer.”
“In the summer.”
“It mustn’t be dark in the summer.”
“No, don’t worry, it won’t be dark.”
“Ok, let’s go.”
“Yes, we’ll go. In the summer.”
“See the caves in the summer.”
“Yes, that’s right, we’ll see the caves in the summer. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Yesterday, dressed all in black
Yesterday, dressed all in black, I ran round the Meadows in the rain, just keeping up with my pal in sunburst orange. It may have looked as if I were chasing him. The wind and my tight fitting black hat stopped me hearing what most hurriers by were saying but one couple’s words filtered through: “That ninja’s let himself go a bit, hasn’t he?”. They smiled at each other and never saw the katana.
Hope
You know who I am don’t you? It was many years ago but you know who I am. I can see it in your eyes. You know I’m not just a regular house breaker with a gun and pliers and duct tape. Now you’re remembering the little boy hiding in the street as you drove away. And just now you’re wondering whether to move but you know it would do more bad than good. It would be slower. Yes, that was me hiding there all those years ago. Those years you have had but we didn’t. They were long years. Did you enjoy them? Did you savour each moment like a ice cube to a man in the desert? I hope you did.
Hope. Yes, I always had that. For all those years. I could not have survived without it. How does it feel not to have hope? How does it feel to feel like you do now?
You need not call me ‘Miss’
Thomas always called her ‘Miss’ and every day Sandra wondered why. She had told him once, from behind a half-smile, that he could use her name. ‘Miss’ was just too great a formality. She longed for him one day to call her ‘Sandra, my darling’.
Thomas could not say her name: his voice might crack and break. ‘Miss’ told how much he missed her when she was not there. One day, one day, he would call her ‘Sandra, my darling’.
Time passed but still warm words did not. The air drew frost when Thomas breathed ‘Miss’ and slowly, slowly, the ice between them grew. Seasons passed but words were always winter.
Then she was gone; and then she was back. And now her name was ‘Madam’.
