The Good Samaritan

by John Marrs

‘Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.’ —Muhammad Ali

‘While seeking revenge, dig two graves – one for yourself.’ —Douglas Horton

when you’re not considered to be a threat, you can get away with much, much more.

She didn’t just tread on my toes, she danced all over them with the grace of an ostrich on hot coals.

she tried to plump up her paper-thin lips by colouring above and below them in a gaudy red. She was a clown in search of a circus.

‘I can feel his heartbeat inside me,’ I’d said to Tony once, when I was pregnant. ‘Don’t be daft,’ he’d replied. ‘It’s your own heart you can feel.’ He didn’t understand that Henry’s heart and mine were one and the same. And as long as I could feel his pulse, he would always be my anchor.