The Night Train to Merrow
A sister has bought a stopped station clock. Someone brings the missing weight on the last inland service, and stays a night too long.
4 min read
Section
Fiction
Stories about arrival, tenancy, night trains and what people almost say.
8 pieces across 4 issues
- 04Kindling
The Second Key
A woman cuts a spare key for a flat she is about to leave, and cannot decide which of the two keys is the honest one.
Excerpt · 14 min in print - 03After the Bell
Visiting Hours
Two people meet in the corridor outside a ward with a paper bag of clementines and no agreed story about why they have come.
Excerpt · 15 min in print - 03After the Bell
A Coat Left on the Stairs
Someone leaves a coat on the shared stairs, and the house spends a week deciding whether it is a promise or a mistake.
Excerpt · 13 min in print - 02Salt Rooms
Salt on the Window Ledge
After a week of sea fog, a tenant finds a line of salt along the paint and begins a correspondence with the flat itself.
Excerpt · 11 min in print - 02Salt Rooms
The Let Room
A man rents a room for a month that might be a summer and learns the previous tenant by the height of the hooks.
Excerpt · 15 min in print - 01First Light
The Orchard Gate
A gate in a borrowed orchard sticks in wet weather. Two cousins oil the hinge and talk about a will nobody has opened.
Excerpt · 14 min in print - 01First Light
First Morning in the New Town
She learns the new town by its bakery queue and by the way the hill withholds the sea until the last corner.
Excerpt · 13 min in print