XandI
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A smoke beneath the stars and time is frozen like a billion cold hearts chasing dollars and cents and I wish I could be warm and sometimes I am but not very often. Perhaps I could drive an ice cream truck. Perhaps I could work in a guitar store and cut all the strings because Read more
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With the fox’s thick fur tickling her nose, Gretchen sniffs and sneezes in fits. Beyond the smell reminding her of the leaves she keeps pressed between the pages of her secret books, she catches the scent of many tiny creatures. Mites. Fleas. Perhaps others the same as her, shrunken to near impossibly small sizes, but Read more
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In a previous life, I was a b-movie actor from the turn of the century. Bulimic. Moderate good looks. Big dope fiend. An abused abuser with a penchant for girls as thin as those pink wafer snacks you get at parties. I ate a whole pack of them once at Christmas and was sick in Read more
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As the animals roll like waves of sea and grass, Gretchen buries her face in the coat of fur belonging to a fox. The fox promptly screams, but not out of fear. Rather, its screams are that of excitement, for the fox has never before felt the touch of one unlike itself. Wagging its tail Read more
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At first, she thinks she sees only horses, but when she swoops down low to the ground, the picture that’s painted for her is both startlingly beautiful and haunting. In the tall grass that bends and twists in the wicked wind, she sees not only rushing horses but an assortment of small animals in the Read more
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As the streets and buildings diminish, the storm whips her good and proper. To the gods, and those below, she’s almost invisible, but to Gretchen, the fury of her own momentum rages with as much force as the storm. Perhaps even more, for now she’s shooting like a star, and shining brighter than any force on earth. Read more
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The roads beneath her sink into the earth, and the buildings she doesn’t recognise tumble as if made of stale bread turned soggy by the rain. Life is down there, continuing its descent into a slow malaise, but the reason for her flying so high isn’t to witness this. No. Not this time. Not tonight. Read more
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There are blowjobs on dusty beds in cramped basements and drunken butterflies on tipsy noses snorting steam from windows overlooking flooded car parks. Procrastination is the only thing I’ve ever done well. Putting off everything so I can do nothing. Cigarettes and coffee—under the clock in the kitchen eating tinned breakfasts with no nutritional value Read more
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She has a pink nose from the cold. Beneath a cherry blossom tree, she nibbles a slice of pizza. When the wind picks up, petals shower us like bubbles of thought. The petals are pink like the moon, like the lips she spreads when I ask her pretty please to let me see what she’s Read more
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In the tall grass next to the water tower by the train tracks belonging to a town that died decades ago, I trim my pubic hair with a pair of scissors shoplifted from Tesco. I do so to impress the girl who works in the pub behind the supermarket that contains my mind, body and Read more
Author S. K. Nicholas 