Author: admin

“Fen,” I say, thinking to ask if she’s alright, thinking no one should have to see a body spat out by the sea, or any dead body. I’ll tell her I want to look after her, that she shouldn’t be alone. That we will drink hot chocolate all crammed together on the couch like we…

“Things affect people in different ways.” I wait for him to find the words to tell me what’s wrong, or to decide he is sleepy after all. “This morning,” he says haltingly, “before we went to the boat.” “Yeah.” “Rowan was asking me about Hank.” My stomach plummets and I am back to despising her,…

“You were just a shape,” she admits. “Tangled in driftwood and kelp. I didn’t think you’d be alive.” I don’t know how to thank her, how to convey the enormity of my gratitude. “Come on,” she says before I can try. She leads Orly and me to a wooden hut on stilts in the water….

“I’ll drop you to shore and circle back,” Fen says. “No,” I say, and she looks at me. “We’re going home now.” “What? No, I can make it.” I hold her eyes. “We’re going home now. It’s alright.” Her mouth opens but whatever she was going to say dissolves and her shoulders slump. “But we…

“Hank?” Orly thinks. “He was nice. Everyone liked him.” “Mates with your dad?” “Oh no, not Dad.” I look sideways at him. “Really? Why not?” “I dunno.” “Did they not like each other?” I press. “Dad said once that he could see through Hank.” Orly looks at me. “What does that mean?” “Just…” I try…

I must look unimpressed because he laughs and that’s when I see it: there is something remarkable after all. It’s his smile and that laugh, the warmth of it. “Can I explain over a coffee?” “I don’t have coffee. I don’t have a kitchen.” He peers up the hill at the worksite. “Incredible spot you’ve…

“What kind of house?” “Just a house. My sisters helped a bit, but mostly I did it myself. It took a long time, a lot of years. It had a garden.” I stop, because I don’t know how to talk about this garden, or really this house either. My life. “Where was it?” he asks,…

I meet his eyes. “Dom. How are we gonna get me off this island?” I climb onto the quad bike behind him, making sure to keep a gap between our bodies. The second we take off over the rough terrain I have instant regret: it is so rough it feels as though my body might…

Before I can go in search of her: bed, again. My body’s glad of it. I have left the curtains open to the eerie nighttime sunlight. My fingers reach to my pocket. For the photo within. I draw it out and look at his face. The handsome lines of it, the light behind his eyes,…

With no warning at all there is a man in the tiny bathroom with me. We stare at each other, shocked by the other’s presence. I have seen this man before, I think I have dreamed of him. As he takes in the state of me his expression changes. There are no clothes but the…