Ghost Parachute

Which isn’t my real name, but it is the only name I’ll answer to. When I was five, I lit my first match, squealing at the crackling sound it made when it ignited. My dad extinguished the flame with his pointer finger and thumb, and I cried so hard I threw up. He wanted to […]

‘I think I am an angel,’ Jack said. I rolled my eyes to the sky, to where angels were supposed to be. Not next to me, forcing me to share my room and toys. I looked at mum, hoping for her to tell him off for saying something so stupid, but she didn’t. She never […]

The sticker-covered shop door emitted a pleasant though distinctly electronic tinkle. The kind of place we used to call a head shop. Those incense-heavy places of iron-on patches and blacklight posters. Led Zeppelin over the loudspeaker. Pipes. Bongs. Rolling papers. 45 rpm records by Creedence or Tull. I felt a thousand years old. Especially when […]

When mom would get tipsy, she’d tell this story. She had only one; beautifully embellished, wild with gestures, impeccable timing, and heart dropping punchiness. “It was a brutal labour.” She’d look around the living room and declare, “You guys couldn’t begin to imagine, and all this shit without an epidural.” She was always smiling ear-to-ear […]

Her friend, when he was her friend, used to say you’d live differently if you lived like this was the second-to-last day of your life. Why second-to-last? she’d wanted to know. Because last, he explained, would be difficult. Last, you’d always be asking yourself, Now? Now? When? And this had made sense. They’d agreed, as […]

A body in motion stays in motion. The recital. You came late and had to stand at the back of the gymnasium of your daughter’s school. You missed her solo; you missed how she leaped and twirled with the other girls, arms perfect, bodies encased in pink leotards, and those oh-so-lovely faces enhaloed in tight […]