Legacy

Published by The Forge Literary, June 2022
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I lit a cigarette and looked for an ashtray, tried not to imagine Father in an armchair and Mum on the balcony; tried to keep the real thing firmly shut away where it belonged. The smell of hot pine and the gentle clink of ice in a gin and tonic ­–that was the stuff that would make it feel dangerously close, not this neat little rental with flimsy kitchen cabinets. When I slammed the freezer shut, the walls vibrated.