The cat was on the trampoline again, leaping, bouncing, wailing, crying. It was impossible to tell if it was having fun or not, and even if anyone had been awake, no one would have dared come down to see.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on May 16th, 2023
__________“Stop being weird, Claire,” Ethel said.
“I’m not being weird,” Claire said, from inside the bin. “I’m being loud.”
To prove her point, she kicked the metal bin as hard as she could while standing inside it, causing it to gong like a bell.
“You can be two things at once, you know?” Tina said, quietly and seriously.
“You can’t,” Claire said.
“You can,” Ethel said. “And you are.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m not weird at all,” Claire said. “Daniel’s weird.”
“Daniel’s not weird he’s whimsical,” Tina said.
“Bringing the cat to the shops isn’t whimsical, it’s weird,” Claire said. “Really weird.”
“She wanted to see where cat biscuits came from,” Daniel said. “And now she knows.”
The cat meowed to let everyone know she did know now and everyone crouched down to stroke her except Claire, who began kicking the inside of the bin again until she had everyone’s attention.
“Daniel’s weird, I’m loud, Tina’s, urgh, thoughtful, and Ethel’s contrary,” Claire said.
“I’m not contrary!”
“You are!” Claire declared, banging the bin lid against the side of the bin to finalise the pronouncement. “And that’s that!”
“What about Mum?” Tina asked.
“Mum’s exasperated,” Agnes said, emerging from the shop with several carrier bags full of spilt cat biscuits. “And Daniel, if that cat ever wants to know where fish come from, don’t you dare take her to the pet shop, okay?”
__________
Notes:
1. Written on April 25th, 2023
__________It dreamt it was a metronome.
It dreamt it was an egg timer.
It dreamt it was a stopwatch.
It dreamt it was the display on a VCR
in the 1980s
green
and pristine
and the numbers on a clock radio
glowing red
in the early morning gloom
But what it dreamt of most often
what it dreamt of right now
was of its own magnificence
huge and looming
on the side of some infinite tower
high above the town
ticking
tocking
relentlessly
measuring out the lives of everyone below
regulating the beats of their hearts
until they matched the timing
of its own
__________
Notes:
1. Written on March 30th, 2023
__________The swan sailed across the lake like a destroyer, sinking its enemies at will, all hissing, pecking, wing-flapping belligerence.
Claire was, not for the first time, completely in love.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on the 13th April, 2023
__________Something put nests up all around the town. Weird contortions of twig and wire, string and sinew, thorns, charging cables, washing lines, shoelaces, school ties, the horrible mesh bags they put oranges in at the supermarket.
No one knew why. No one dared ask. The nests were taken down, and everyone hoped that whatever had made them wouldn’t make them again.
But they would. They would.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on April 7th, 2023
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