The last week was worse than watching paint dry. It was watching grout dry. A version of a shower had arrived.Hot water too. Hot water had been a fight—willpower against space. We won. Just. A week earlier we’d been jumping around like kids. High fives. Laughing as hot water came through the kitchen tap. Now […]
We set off at 7am to get back in time. It was Mam’s wedding day. Family, celebration, the whole thing. But that wasn’t why we left early. Now I had a plan. Get home, do the hellos, then straight back out — Barnsley. Last of a litter of Jack Russell pups. His balls hadn’t dropped […]
It’s a warm afternoon in late August, maybe early September, and the smell from the river is high and thick with rot. Salmon. They come here every year to spawn, work their way upriver, do what they came to do, then die. A few days later they’re floating back out again, spent and splitting in […]