“Between my teeth I held that string, sucking on it on the bus, rolling it against my peeling lips and feeling at its fraying cotton edge with my tongue. At work, I waited for someone to point it out, to ask about the material growing from inside me, or at the very least try to pull it from my face like my mother used to do with the sleep in my eyes, but no one even glanced its way…”

“Crumpled white shapes bobbed at waist height just past the verandah — the glowing heads of wild iris, their spiked bodies dark and rustling underneath. Standing among them was Sal, her hands held out so that the flowers head-butted and kissed her knuckles and wrists, and Jo couldn’t have said why but from then on she trusted Sal, and started looking at her straight on instead of sideways…”

“Water swelled blue-black around her knees, the candle light floating a little way ahead, in the unmoving air of the underground. She’d been here many times before, stuck the melting bases of candles to nearby rocks to light up the entire chamber…”