Alan reads aloud the text relaying Ken’s funeral plans. The more he reads, the less colour adorns Jackie’s face.
“You didn’t know,” he says.
“What happened?”
“Stroke. Last Saturday.”
She pictures Ken’s smile peering up from the cabbages, hand raised in acknowledgment. “But I saw him at the allotment. Yesterday.”
Anna Sanderson writes about the world as she sees it (with the odd twist and turn). You can follow her story on Twitter at @annasanderson86.
“I see things.” Her words send a shiver down my spine. “Mama’s red hair. Papa’s scowl.”
“Liv…”
Memories flicker in her eyes. Endless nights of quilt-cover armour and tears.
“I’m afraid they’re back.”
I glance into the hallway, where our parents’ silhouettes hover. I can’t tell her they never left.
Anna Sanderson writes about the world as she sees it (with the odd twist and turn). You can follow her story on Twitter at @annasanderson86.
You break the news in a sombre tone, voice barely a whisper. My guilty eyes fixate on your office floor. You blame government cuts and funding, anything but the truth: your wife found out.
I don’t tell you I’ve already found another job. I started looking the day we kissed.
Anna Sanderson writes about the world as she sees it (with the odd twist and turn). You can follow her story on Twitter at @annasanderson86.
After months of messages, my time was running out. Soon she’d know the photos were fake, my story someone else’s.
I emailed her from another phony account, my brother’s. Carl’s dead, I wrote. I’m here if you need me.
She responded quickly, devastated yet eager. I had my second chance.
Anna Sanderson is a writer from Nottingham, England, who writes about the world as she sees it. Her work can be found online and in numerous zines and anthologies. Follow her on Twitter at @annasanderson86.
Without costume or painted face, he played the clown. He became the one who made her smile, while she became the world.
It was cold the day they married, but the biting wind brought consolation, helping to freeze his own smile in place as he read his best man speech.
Anna Sanderson is a writer and performer from Nottingham, England. She writes about the world as she sees it, hoping to make a small, positive change, one word at a time. She has been published online and in numerous zines and anthologies, and is currently working on her first novel. Follow her on Twitter.