Ishmael's Oranges

by Claire Hajaj

Each man’s life involves the life of all men, each tale is but the fragment of a tale.

‘you are more precious to me than my eyes’.

‘When dreams become more important than life, you don’t care what you have to do to grasp them.’

I know the man you’re seeing – he’s not a bad one, but young.’

A beautiful wife is the only luck a man needs, eh?’

She had known they would fail. After years of pretending to belong to them, she had left at last.