Tales Of The Gurrier

Her name was Candy, of course it was Candy, what else could it be?
I met her early one grey London morning, the drizzle blanketing the morning commuters as we headed for the warm, underground warren of the Tube.
I was late, threading my way through the throng of umbrellas and latte wielding office types, two months [...]

The doorbell rang at nine, pulling me out of a dream about her. The dream was familiar. I knew how it ended, badly, like all my dreams. As sleep faded, anger rose incoherently in me, anger at being drawn away from her, even the imperfect memory of her.
The caller leaned on the doorbell again, playing [...]

Otsï returned after my father died.
He left in the Summer of my ninth year. The Summer of the big wind, when all the houses on Bergen street lost their roofs. Stripped of their slate clad coverings and sturdy, red brick chimneys they resembled nothing more than a row of glum, naked pated gentlemen, their finery [...]

I met Robert in the pub one Saturday night. It was late, the bar was almost empty, islands of untenanted seats punctured that delicate atmosphere of communion; dry throats and brown ale and a hungry thirst. Pub goers cloistered themselves in isolated groups, talking and drinking, an occasional shout of laughter stirring the susurrus of [...]

‘What’s that on your leg?’
‘My leg? Nothing, just a mole.’
‘It looks like letters, did you get a tattoo?’
‘What! Christ no.’
I stumbled into the bathroom to take a look. Fuck, she was right. There it was staring at me in the mirror ‘Fi’ it said. What the hell did it mean? No wait ‘If’, if what? [...]

Hello my darlings,
Excuses, excuses are what I have for you today. It’s been a busy couple of months here at Gurrier Towers, busy in the sense of working hard in exchange for monetary rewards, rather than toiling to produce great works of art. Much as I wish it were the latter, it’s the former that [...]

It was the children who doomed us. They were our hope, our future and ultimately the end of us. It was an invasion. We spent a thousand generations watching the skies, but when they finally came it was from inner space; crawling, flying, slithering, oozing, leaping, singing, hobbling, twittering, barking, squawking, vibrating, humming and exploding [...]

‘Look at me,’
‘No.’
‘Look at me. This is what I am.’
‘That’s not you.’
‘Yes it is.’
‘But.’
‘I’m not like other people. I’m not from around here.’
‘Yes, you’re from England.’
‘That’s right, well no, not exactly. I’m special.’
‘How?’
‘I’m different’
‘Different how?’
‘It’s hard to explain, it’s something inside, in my blood. Something you can’t see.’
‘Special, like you’re sick?’
‘No, not sick, just different [...]