Sublime

They ate by candlelight – it should have been romantic, but the shadows sat at the table with them, two candles hardly lighting their plates. In the gloom each of them looked different, and gradually they became different.

Five years ago, when they had met, carefree was all she ever wanted. Now she found that staying carefree took a lot of effort.

Her few clothes hung austerely on a rail, and a television overlooked the foot of the bed; she watched it indiscriminately and with confusion, trying to make Bethesda’s child into an ordinary woman. And indeed she was ordinary, where certain essential matters were concerned – had not believed in hell since the day she’d laughed at the belt in her f

Sapphists