Author: Lauren Thomas

“I’m not afraid of anything.” The snake overheard the boastful man, standing outside his enclosure in too tight trousers and a very silly shirt showing too much of his chest. He saw these people every day, strutting like those arrogant peacocks with their ostentatious plumage. He heard them baying for attention with their gratingly loud…

She envied the starlings and their vantage point, dancing above the earth. The overseers. She envied the whales and their knowledge of the oceans, diving to depths she would never know. The discoverers. She envied the cheetahs and the way they seemed to play with time, sprinting across the ground at impossible speeds. The athletes.…

After everything that had happened, you can’t blame me for day-drinking. Returning home at lunchtime, a bag of clinking glass in my hand, I found a tall woman sprawled inelegantly on the front steps, surrounded by sweet wrappers. She didn’t recognise me. To be fair, I had changed a lot in the last twelve years.…

How can she only be eight? My daughter’s brow is too furrowed for her age. She has already grasped how precious time is but I want her to exist without the threat of it pressing down on to her birdlike shoulders. I want to use my fingers to smooth out those lines on her forehead,…

She smiled at everyone. Sometimes people smiled back and carried that joy with them for the rest of their day. Sometimes they looked a bit confused and shook their heads in either bemusement or straight up confusion. Sometimes they responded with anger, and one man even pointed a finger and called her the devil. What…

“Would you like an advent calendar this year?” “Absolutely not.” “What? Why?” “Because I don’t like countdowns.” “What on earth are you talking about?” “Think about it. When are countdowns good? You get counted down to start a race and that’s frankly terrifying. You get counted down to a new year and that just reminds…

The stars were going out. They didn’t notice at first. There were too many in the sky to miss them, too far away to notice the gentle dimming in the universe. But then Orion lost the centre of his belt, and the panic set in. People watched the constellations fall, saw the archer’s bow tumble…

“What are you doing?” A sigh. One eye lazily opens. “Having a bath.” The eye closes. “Why?” Another sigh. Both eyes open. “To relax.” Emphasis on the second word. Both eyes close. “Not to get clean?” She sits up and looks into the small face. “Well, yes it does that too.” “Can I get in?”…

“Do you want to see a magic trick?” A shrug, impassive shoulders. He sighed, the makeup on his face tight across his cheeks. He pulled a rope from his pocket with a smile that made the child instinctively take a step back. Fear of clowns was ruining his life. Coulrophobia was a pretty funny word…

He was older than the river that had forged a path from the sea, curving through the landscape and inspiring painters and writers for more years than he could count. He was older than the clocktower that the townsfolk lived their lives by, and older than the cathedral that they had built with callused hands.…