Today three guests arrived from the sea. I had neither expected nor wished to see another soul for as long as I lived. Yet I made them welcome. I had been sitting above the waterfall, gazing into one of the pools beside the rapids where the waters gather strength for their shouting suicidal plunge. I […]

“They say there are only old women left.” Dima, sitting on a stump, dirt and dead pine needles at his feet, hugs his greatcoat tighter around him but it’s no use. The cold is unspeakable. He’s never felt anything like it, would be ashamed to say so even though he suspects the others feel the […]

For several years, Winnie had been living on the north side of a town where nobody oriented themselves in terms of north, south, east, or west but rather in relation to the sea, the hills, and two rivers, one on either side. One did not, when giving directions, say, Drive west but rather, Drive towards […]

“So, is it all coming back yet?” Ursula Crichton’s question snaps Dan back to the here and now. Tires grit on tarmac as she eases the Subaru estate around a corner, a bar of spent sunlight scanning across her face. Outside, brambles and browning gorse overhang moss-scabbed walls. Branches of birch and oak shiver above, […]