Monthly Archives: April 2011
Drillerman (Where you gonna run to?)
He only ever drills. There are three types of rock here and, just two weeks into his tour, he knows them again like old sailors knew the winds. The black rock is everywhere. It forms the walls and the ceiling … Continue reading
Scaramanga’s House of Fun
When Francisco first brought me here – when the seaplane glided over the top of the island and banked hard, and I saw beneath me those pillars of tropical foliage rising improbably out of the turquoise water – I felt … Continue reading
Treading Water
Gef was big. He had always been tall, but when he left his teens behind and took a life of inertia behind a computer terminal, he became broad too. Fat, his father said. Gef said it was the way he … Continue reading
The Weevil People
In the evening, the old carpenter would drag his wares back into the shop and bolt the door. Shutting up was taking longer each day. His hands shook in the afternoons and his eyesight was failing. He had almost nothing … Continue reading
Inside Out
The hotel is inside out. My room is cool. Outside, it’s hot – to me, impossibly so. How could all that air get so hot? Stepping out onto the balcony feels like walking into a cramped little shop in the … Continue reading