fiction excerpt: the road of ghosts
longlisted in griffith review’s 2023 emerging voices competition.
My piece, about living ghosts haunting long winding roads, was longlisted in Griffith Review’s 2023 Emerging Voices Competition. It explores belief, trauma and gratitude.
↳ excerpt:
i am on the haunted road
and then i am inside a memory and the memory is of all those cold mornings. in the memory, i am remembering: the gnarled hand flicking forward, baronial, holding mine in front of my face, mimicking the angle of his wrist.
the memory inside the memory is distilled to the word fingertips. that is all i have to remember, i tell myself as i walk towards the stadium, fingertips, fingertips, fingertips, and a cocked wrist. it is his voice speaking through me. i listen. i am an adult and i harbour the child. she always listened.