The things that Ash inherited from her great aunt Vera included pale skin, easily bruised shins, and the small stone cottage that was Vera’s childhood home, dark as a cave and nestled against a hill and beside a pine forest. The things that hadn’t been passed down would make a long list, but top of it would be anything that might help a timid person survive in the wild days and nights of the countryside – where the rain rained a river, the fire refused to light and the silence was undone by loud and unidentifiable noises that could be marauding ghosts or somebody alive with bad intentions.
Outside the window was spring, budding trees and a cackle of crows on the power lines; inside, ivy was growing and the cold…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2020