”This is Sonia. She returned from America because it’s lonely,” said Babita.”It wasn’t simply loneliness,” said Sonia, understanding that this woman she did not know wanted to embarrass her. ”It was all the things I’d have to do alone.””Why would you have to do anything alone?” asked Babita. ”It’s the premise of being American: You […]

During Yeva’s first year working the romance tours, when bachelors asked about her day job and she was in a rare mood to divulge, she’d frame what she did as a rescue mission. She was plucking endangered snails from their shrinking habitats and reviving their populations in captivity. One dat, she’d reintroduce them into ecologically […]

The closer they get to Broughton, the more the sand dunes bunch together on the collar of the road. He’d wander out here as a lad, carefree, and tumble down the slopes for hours with kids from other towns he’d never see again. Back then, he wouldn’t give much thought to smashed-up bottles that were […]

We’d reached the foot of the low hill, and Chuan broke into a little jog, forging ahead of us and suddenly vanishing. He had dropped into a dip that had been cut into the land so artfully that we couldn’t see it until we were standing on the edge of the fall, which was disguised […]

The dashboard clock said twenty to nine. His first house call was scheduled for nine o’clock. It was Mrs Tallis, a schoolmistress who, he imagined, liked punctuality, but the fog was heavy still and he wasn’t going to hurry. On the wireless before he left the news was of a big London smog, the worst […]