It was the best Christmas break of my life. We spent most of it in her bed, but we did take the occasional trip off-campus. Under cover of darkness, lest anyone still lurking around after finals see us together, we’d sneak out to the store for ice cream; or to the gas station for the
His students argued that he should take the day off. Answering emails at 10 PM on a Saturday was unacceptable. Two students created a PowerPoint and presented it to him and the rest of the class—the theme–It was time for him to find a social life. Middle-age was not scary. They used the Toulmin Model
24 July 1964: 4:18 p.m. A man carrying a suitcase rushes down the stairs to the crowded Whites Only platformohannesburg train station. Looking straight ahead, he runs his hands through his floppy fringe and mops the sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his tweed jacket. The man bends down, sets the shabby
The pandemic raged on in blue and red states alike, and our youth watched mountains burn and burn, while the year reigned as a colossus risen from hell: it brought deaths and the cloister of quarantine, riots and protests to ignite and incense bodily fires through sleeplessness and troubled starts. Breathing became a privilege for
I. Even now, Zoë can remember all the prices in the Melbourne milk bar that her parents owned. Paddle Pops were seven cents. Sunny Boys were three. Violet Crumbles and Smith’s Crinkle Cut chips both sold for five, the same price as the bus fare to her high school. In those days, two dollars a
Ruminating vows and resolutions, Ludo packs his rucksack. He is going to lie. Even to himself. Whether the latter is possible, and not delusional, is, he decides, a fascinating philosophical question, and in his case the answer is, or will be, ‘yes’. But until the initiation of this trip, he had seemed genetically incapable of
Ice crystals zig-zag their way haphazardly across the cracked window, their fine, lace-like tentacles spreading ever outwards, multiplying, clinging on despite the smoothness of the surface. Wafts of cold, midnight air steal through every chink, hurrying on up the staircase, slipping under bedroom doors, nipping at noses and ears and peeping-out toes. At dawn, Millie
1. Everyday life Evan Millhauser stood watching as they stepped out of the carriage, imagining they were actors auditioning for the part of ‘Passenger getting off a train’. A woman reading an urgent message on her phone. Two students chatting about a lecture as they stepped onto the platform. A woman, tense, consumed by her
I don’t remember who first suggested it. I’d done some modelling when I finished school but that dried up pretty quickly. It was a Spanish brand and I never got to see the pictures, how I looked. Made a bit of cash, bought myself some wheels. Got a bit too big for my boots, Gary
The warm evening air clung to Charlotte’s arms when she exited Waterloo and set off towards Brad Street. Clear skies, spread like a quilt over the city, suggested a long twilight. People told anecdotes in that shrill tone that comes after a few drinks as she walked by the crowded bars. ‘He keeps liking my
