Exclusive story: 'all that sex out there waiting'; Forgotten Suns Instagram art installation; Poem - Xmas; Adventures in LovE - FINAL part!: Tales From The UniversE 42 - newsletter from the eggnog jug
An arcadia of imagination
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2.
‘all that sex out there waiting’
Willy Davies had a feeling he felt now and then that behind the quotidian stuff of the day that seemed to make life structured was a formless thing that was true existence.
He pushed the feeling away.
Considered this:
Sitting at the dining room table, laptop open, a view of frost and snow in the garden through the French windows, the winter light of 23 December glistening, his first day of the new job, working as a content provider for a sport podcast company in Australia, he had to go into the village to try and find a new plug for his MacBook.
His wife took the train into Manchester earlier this morning for a Christmas lunch at the Ivy Spinningfields. She hadn’t wanted to go.
Her final words on leaving: ‘Why would I want to eat Ballotine of Duck Parfait or Goose and Turkey Shepherd’s Pie?’
Willy put on a thick overcoat and walked out into an early white and wintry Poynton afternoon.
The village - bustling.
People sat outside bars under heaters drinking mulled wine, jugs of hot cider, cocktails. Favourite yuletide songs and carols warbled from shops. Pubs and hostelries were packed out.
Festive spirit abounded.
Willy walked along Park Lane. He had two options. He headed for the first. MATES was at the bottom of the village main drag. It was a hardware and electrical store and would hopefully sell adaptors for MacBooks. The lead was fine but the adaptor had bust and there was 5% power left on the computer.
If it died and he was left with no laptop on a first day working for his new employer then…
Willy went in MATES.
Downstairs - electrical goods.
The woman behind the counter was mid-50s and had tinted bleached hair.
‘Do you have a plug adaptor please for a MacBook Air?’
Willy showed her the lead.
She didn’t even look at it; she shook her head.
‘We don’t do Apple stuff here.’
She turned away from him.
‘Okay thanks,’ Willy told her shoulders, her back. I’m going to try Aldi - how you fancy my chances?’
She shrugged. ‘Good luck.’
Willy smiled. Her gave her an over-cheery salvo of: ‘Merry xmas!’
She still didn’t turn around.
She said. ‘Being sarcastic isn’t very christmassy.’
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