You Are Here

by David Nicholls

peering through the veil of rain at all that hidden majesty,

the rain began to fall in earnest,

beck

gu...

the weight on his back shoved his face into jagged rock or threatened to topple him over and down,

exorcism,

pu...

Marnie was directing her fury at him.

This is grim, just so, so grim.’

Now he, too, was railing against the rocks and water, in milder terms,

They were above the cloud line now and would only know the summit when they got there, but even so.

you should always sit in your allocated seat.

At twenty-five, long-haul air travel was a novelty and Marnie had pressed her forehead against the thick glass and marvelled at the clouds’ solidity, the firmness of their lines against the blue. If you fell, would the clouds catch you? What was it like inside a cloud?

trans...

treac...

babb...

bellowed

Even the mountain was a liar

which slapped her wet clothes against her body and scoured her face with the scrapings of the freezer compartment.

‘I’m getting consumption, I can feel it. Consumption in my lungs.’

‘But look where we are!’ Nothing. She could see nothing and he was pointing into nothingness.

Great Gable and Gre...

Butter...

Innominate Tarn where they scattered the ashes of Alfred Wainwright, the man ...

Golden Gate Bridge

Bay of fucking Naples,

The fell top was a plateau and the rain had soaked and submerged the path

She was squelching now, audibly squelching, her teeth rattling like joke-shop dentures as they hop-scotched along, her eyes boring into his back, resolving to be silent now.

neurotic city slicker

taci...

steely,

with vision restored,

carved into its flanks like tattoos.

the landscape was so stark

the kind of place a location scout might propose as a hos...

‘Honister...

growled.

He decided that the hostility was playful, though perhaps a little harder-edged than he was used to.

They joined another path, dead straight, slick and black.

working tramway

derelict building,

Drum House.

dry-stone a wall.’

making the slate as slick and treacherous as ice,

when he offered his hand, she knocked it away.

They shuffled down, each step a stubbed toe on a ...

they strode on down the valley,

Marnie’s eyes widened.

‘I want to walk the whole way.’

He stood for a moment, feeling the cold rain run down his spine.