Stood with her hand on the gate, Iris tried to quell the urge to flee. It was hard being here, in this place, his place.
“Excuse me?”
Startled, she swung round to find a man of around her age standing behind her, a shovel in one hand, and a brown paper bag in the other.
“Sorry.” She moved aside. “I was just… sorry.”
He was tall, but not ungainly, with a green woollen hat pulled down over tufty blond hair. Instead of walking through the gate, he propped it open and waited for her, remarking cheerfully that it was “a lovely day for it.”
Iris took in the whitewashed February sky. It had snowed the previous week, though she’d barely noticed.
“Which one’s yours?”
He was looking at her expectantly.
“The last on the left, down there.” She…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2024