In a Pub

‘Don’t you know what happens in pubs?’  

The line printed under the title of my short story ‘In a Pub’ published in Reading Room/Newsroom on 3 July 2021. 

A slice of life captured by words. Fiction or non-fiction alike. As always, that's just furnishing. 

I like the illustration chosen for the story. I like it a lot. The woman in the picture looks a bit like the woman in the story. In her younger days. 

How I wish I could call my daughter. To tell her that one of mum’s stories had found its way to the papers. That some others are on their way too. In such faraway places as Arizona, Berlin and New York. 

I am trying to sit very still, so still to hear her voice. Words bouncing between chuckles. Words of love, encouragement, delight. Words we had for each other. 

It is true what someone said - grief is love with nowhere to go. 

Winter afternoon is rolling silently beyond weeping windows, over the rooftops and across the field made alive by young men’s shouts. Cricketers. 

Sunday. In New Zealand.