The shops in High Street still have their metal grilles down, blank-eyed and sleeping. My name is scrawled across them all. I'm outside Ajay's newsagent's. I'm on the expensive shutters of the health food store. I'm massive on Handie's furniture shop, King's Chicken Joint and the Barbecue Cafe. I thread the pavement outside the bank and all the way to Mothercare. I've possessed the road and am a glistening circle at the roundabout.
Jenny DownhamNurses never tell you what they know. They're hired for their cheeriness and the thickness of their hair. They need to look alive and healthy, to give the patients something to aim for.
Jenny DownhamI'm me and you're you, and all of them out there are them. And we're all so different and equally unimportant.
Jenny DownhamHelp me, Mikey, she wanted to say. Iโm afraid. More afraid than youโd ever believe.โ And heโd take her hand and theyโd fly across the rooftops and up into space and sit on some planet and watch a double sunrise or maybe a star being born or some other event that no human had ever seen, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. And sheโd tell him everything.
Jenny Downham