Category: Fiction

The scrambling section required concentration, and so Jonathan and Ben didn’t say very much to each other before finally making it to the blustery overlook.  Jonathan zipped up his fleece jacket and looked out at the small islands dotting the cerulean Norwegian sea. On one of the closer islands, two small bright red houses perched on stilts above the rocks in the dissipating fog. Ben’s yellow windbreaker obviously wasn’t warm enough and his shoulders hunched forward in the wind. Did he even notice how beautiful it was here?

Suzanne shakes her head, says, “When the building comes tumbling down, does it really matter if you’re trapped on the first or the fortieth floor?”

Outside, small, widely spaced flakes fall. A pair of laughing toddlers upholstered in red ski overalls trot stiffly ahead of a woman pushing a stroller. Martin thinks of his twin brothers. Sadly, he no longer remembers their faces.

“Is your concussion making you stupid?” He asked her when, at a party they’d decided to hold, she invited a coworker he particularly disliked. “It must be, because if it wasn’t there’s no way you would have thought it was okay to invite him to my place.” Josiah had her cornered in the kitchen, gesturing the neck of his beer at her.

The room was advertised as a sun-filled, spacious double with inbuilt wardrobes and the listing included photos of a bed frame with sagging timber slats, an off-kilter hills hoist in a concrete back yard, and a narrow linoleum kitchen. No couples, pets or smoking. Available immediately and no references required.