We stood talking in the water. Waist deep. 6.30am. Saturday. I’d just managed 100 metres in the shallows without drowning. He was about to do an easy 1500. Probably more. I was heading into shore. He was heading into the deep. We stood talking in the water. Common humanity. He farewelled me with ‘See you […]
The Big Issue has just published a story about letter-writing, and friendship, and delivering your own hand-written letters on your own bike. I have a postie’s bike, but not in good working order. Salvaged from a skip, it’s a rusted machine with a cracked leather seat, flat tyres and a chain that won’t budge. Still, […]
This story was published in The Big Issue (#447, 6-25 December 2013) I went away for two weeks and came back to find George’s home was up for sale. He’d lived in the cream and green weatherboard house for about 30 years, much of that time on his own. And now he was gone. His […]
The Big Issue has just published The Fallen Woman. Here’s an excerpt: The young woman with the baby walked over to the petrol bowsers and tore white paper from a dispenser. The middle-aged woman wrapped it around the fallen woman’s hand: around a ring or two. There wasn’t too much blood now. More on the […]
The Australian edition of The Big Issue has just published Waist Deep, a story about the ebb and flow of friendships, and about finding a sense of belonging. Here’s an excerpt: I had no place here, I told myself again. I’m an impostor, here for the benefit of my own selfish curiosity. But now standing […]
November 13, 2017
4