FICTION | RELATIONSHIPS | LOSS | RECOVERY

Angel of the North (Pt 1)

How Can You Trust a Person if You Haven’t Seen Their Eyes?

Drawing by Gus Gresham. Head and shoulders detail of ‘The Angel of the North’, a twenty-metre-high sculpture by Antony Gormley, located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England.

Part 1

Lilith wished she’d shut the door in his face.

Who does he think he is? Turning up uninvited on a hot summer’s day. Eyes hidden behind dark glasses. A faintly mocking smile on his face.

He even looked her up and down, and she felt a stab of shame over her baggy joggers and tea-stained top.

“Sorry?” she said. “I thought it was the post. How can I help?”

He was tall and angular and smelled of wet rust.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” he said, “but the weeds in your front garden must be four foot tall. Self-setter trees all over the place. And the blackberry … Needs eradicating, that does. Evil stuff.”

“I … You’re complaining?” she said.

“No. I want to help. It looks as if there might have been a path to your door once, under all the couch grass. I moved onto the road a few days ago. Kai Eldridge. Home and garden restorations.”

“Thank you, no,” said Lilith.

Kai Eldridge stayed where he was, laughing softly. It was a whispery laugh that for a moment became one…