The
Suddenly, again, the join has taken place, she can sense it.
cluttered drainingboard and turning around to
She can never really pick up on the actual
to fix it later, and maybe she could try phoning
moment when things switch, but now, right here,
him rather than going all the way down those
washing this last mug in the greying soapy water
damned stairs.) No, none of that stuff, just… (I
(one of her nicest, a swirling bluebell-patterned
don’t know) something, a frequency, or maybe
one that Helen gave her for christmas last year)
the refreshing change of having been thinking
the tide has yet again Turned for the Worse,
about something for too long and now thinking
not that anything looks or smells or sounds
of something else. Although tonight (like it or
different; the radio’s still on - You and Yours
not) it feels like it might be worse than normal,
loud and steady - her feet are still ever so cold
like the fact that Carl isn’t coming is common
and swollen and she’s still (definitely) the only
knowledge, and she feels a little spike below
one here in the flat tonight (Helen’s off today
her stomach as she shuffles over to the table,
so Carl went straight home; she watched him
still gleaming a bit where she’s wiped it.
seek out the teatowel, glancing (without making too much drama out of it) at the slightly open kitchen door, always blowing open these days, the silly thing (perhaps she could ask Mr Hunter
secretly from the window bumbling back from
She eases herself carefully into a chair,
school with some of his mates – he didn’t like it
and then picks the burner she’s left (on purpose)
when she gawked out the window at him, said it
out of the ashtray and brings it shakily upto
was embarrassing) although I guess her being
her lips. She pushes her glasses up her nose a
alone wasn’t particularly…
She runs the mug
little, keeping an eye on the kitchen door, which
under the cold tap wiping it around the rim with
(she notes) hasn’t opened up any wider, and
her fingers before putting it upsidedown on the
slides her hand into the pocket of her pinnie.
B