“Do you think flies get depressed?” she said. “Anxiety – do you think they get anxiety? I get like that, if I’m ever in a place I don’t want to be and cannot leave. Now, there’s a Christmas story for another time. Flies seem to spend a lot of time in places they desperately don’t want to be.”
She tried the window again, but it was stuck fast, maybe painted shut, and she looked back over her shoulder at the fly circling in a vortex at the centre of the room.
“Don’t worry,” she said. But I couldn’t tell, from my vantage point, tied to the radiator, who she was talking to. She forced a smile, a pure curved line in a face of soot and sweat. “Let’s not panic,” she said.
At last, one of us was doing something.
Gary Raymond is a novelist, author, playwright, critic, and broadcaster. In 2012, he co-founded Wales Arts Review, was its editor for ten years. His latest book, Abandon All Hope: A Personal Journey Through the History of Welsh Literature is out now with Calon Books.
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