The Olive Jar
I walked around the place. I was looking for answers, but I couldn’t find any. I saw a dried and probably dead potted plant in the bedroom on the chest of drawers, drooping and brown. A peace lily, I think.…
mavinaveen
The Pictures on the Wall
And there I was, on the asphalt in the sunshine. My swollen feet desperate to be released from their shoes. I wished I had worn my easy-fit sandals, but they had seemed a bit too outré this morning, when I…
Desolation
We were pulling over now. We were here. A desolate place with nothing around but traffic. The only picture I had seen had been of the exterior, reprinted onto a letter, and, like my eyes, was not of very good…
Salt
The driver had seen me looking at the bicycle and thought I was interested in the shop. He seemed to be trying to make up for his earlier awkwardness at seeing the address. ‘Ibiza is an island of salt. They…
It Begins with A
I had a small tartan suitcase and an address and an envelope with a key inside. That was it. That was everything. A world condensed. ‘What hotel?’ the taxi driver asked me, smiling, as he placed my case in the…
The Tall Rock
The Tall Rock On the plane to Ibiza, I sat in front of a row of young people talking excitedly about nightclubs. It sounded like a new but half-familiar language. A kind of code. ‘So … Ushuaïa tomorrow, Monday DC-10…
The Life Impossible – Conversations with the Dead
Conversations with the DeadOn the way to the cemetery I passed my old boss – and your old headteacher, Mr Gupta – leaving a coffee shop. After some small talk he asked me how I was doing, and I was…
The Life Impossible
The Life Impossible .14159‘No two legs are ever the same …’ said the surgeon. ‘Even on the same person. Even if they look identical. The veins are always a different pattern. It’s like fingerprints.’ And there was something about what…
The Life Impossible – Matt Haig An Ongoing Situation
An Ongoing Situation. ‘Sorry if this is too direct,’ I told the solicitor. ‘But how did she die?’ ‘I thought you knew,’ she said. Mrs Una Kemp. A voice like it had only just come out of the fridge and…
The Life Impossible – Matt Haig Pineapples
The Life Impossible – Matt Haig PineapplesThe letter had been an unusual one. It had informed me that I had been left a property in Ibiza, Spain, belonging to someone called Christina van der Berg. This Christina van der Berg…