December 2008 Archives
To come close to her world… take the serpentine path across Hyde Park, and as you walk, think of her. She would have walked this path, just as you. She would have paused, and looked upon the golden yellow of spring daffodils and the racing heart of early bluebells. You are seeing what her eyes saw. The same birds are singing… and you are so close to her… that you can hear her silent feet over green fields, and taste the sweet smell of Hawthorn blossom that fills your soul… and when you come to a bend in the path, where she too, saw the first shimmer of April blue upon the lake, I know… that you, have only to turn your head… to see her walking beside you.
She sat within the glow of the coals, their red heat penetrated the pores of her skin and warmed the white of her bones. She stared long and hard into the glass of whisky as if it were full of a thousand nettles, and finding no reason to swallow the liquid her mind moved over matters best with the gradient carefulness of an undertaker’s assistant… A deleted scene from ‘The Shriving of Miss Esme Stamp’ by Patrick Callaghan.
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