Roof
Pigeons
Top Floor
Maps
Manuals
Middle Floor
Encyclopaedias
Dictionaries
Ground Floor
Fiction
Newspapers
Basement
Children’s Books
Computers (out of service)
Classical CDs
Beneath The Basement
Misc Books (banned)
Misc Books (buried)
Misc Books (bloodstained)
Beneath Even That
Dust
Dirt
Bones
Ash
__________
Notes:
1. Written on September 25th, 2026
__________“Big school! Big school! We’re all going to Big School!” Daniel sang as he carefully avoided the puddles that had mysteriously appeared overnight. “I’ve never even been down this path before. It’s like an adventure. On the way to school!””
“I don’t know what you’re so excited about, Daniel,” Claire said, as she carefully unavoided the puddles that had mysteriously appeared overnight. “This path’s just as stupid as the old path and big school is just as bad as our old school. Which was AWFUL!”
“You haven’t even been to the big school yet, Claire,” said Agnes, as she carefully avoided telling Claire to carefully avoid the puddles that had mysteriously appeared overnight. “It might be nice.”
“It might be not,” said Claire. “And where are Tina and Ethel anyway?!”
“Their school doesn’t start until 9,” said Agnes, as she tentatively stepped over a smashed up garden fence. “And it’s nearer.”
“Urgh! That is so unfair!” Claire said, as she crunched her way satisfyingly across loads of broken glass. “No wonder they looked so smug eating their stupid cereal!”
“But they finish an hour later at Nice School,” Daniel said, limboing under a street sign that a car had half knocked down. “So we win!”
“At best that’s a draw,” Claire said. “And you’re forgetting detention, Daniel.”
“Perhaps you could try and not get put in detention this year, Claire,” Agnes suggested helpfully.
“Why would I do that?” Claire said, stomping extra hard in the final few puddles before the gates. “Detention’s the best bit.”
__________
Notes:
1. Written on September 2nd, 2026
__________The circus was in town again. No one knew why.
There wasn’t even anything you could really do about it, except perhaps ignore it and hope they’ll leave everyone alone.
__________
Notes:
1. Written in August 2026
__________“Whoever invented quiche is an idiot,” Claire announced. She wasn’t even eating quiche. She was just thinking about it.
“Quiche wasn’t invented,” Daniel said. He wasn’t thinking about quiche at all. He was too busy eating it. “It was discovered.”
“By an idiot,” Claire said, still thinking about quiche. And suddenly also celery. “Whoever invented celery is an idiot.”
“Celery wasn’t invented,” Tina said. She was both thinking and not thinking about celery at the same time. Also she was drinking a cup of tea because she’d already eaten all the celery she could eat and it’d made her feel a bit ill. “It was grown.”
“By an idiot,” Claire said, thinking about quiche and celery now. And suddenly also ravioli. “Whoever invented ravioli is an idiot.”
“Ravioli wasn’t invented,” Ethel said. She was both thinking about and eating ravioli. “It was born.”
“It was not!” said Claire. But now she would never stop thinking about ravioli ever again. Ravioli, and where, where it came from.
___________
Notes:
1. Written on August 10th, 2026
__________There was a cloud out to sea, raining.
Was it a mirage, a ghost, a premonition? Whatever it was, everyone in the town looked at it wistfully and begged it to come closer.
But it did not.
___________
Notes:
1. Written in August 2026
__________