Does it look different? Zoe asked, tilting her head. Tom stopped in the hallway outside the bedroom and glanced back. Does what look different? he asked. Zoe shrugged her right shoulder, rolled it forward, rolled it back. My arm, she said. This arm. She waggled the fingers of her hand. The fingers felt different. The […]

It wasn’t even Halloween, technically. It was the day after, at your company’s annual Halloween party, and it was late and you were drunk, so when Susan suggested a short-cut through the cemetery you didn’t hesitate. You’d follow Susan anywhere. You remembered a song from your teens: Went down to the cemetery, looking for love […]

There are buzzards in the fields around where I live. I never thought ours was the sort of town that would have buzzards, or any kind of big bird like that—not vulture types. We’re more of a pigeon place. Blackbirds and blue tits. Seagulls, sometimes, at a push. But no, we have buzzards. And the […]

When the war came, Paul was evacuated one morning. He was put firmly on the train and waved off into the west. London, they told him, was a death trap, even though his side was going to win anyway. These words filled him with anxiety and hope at the same time, but both emotions faded […]