The Good Samaritan

by John Marrs

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

my husband has a chronic lung condition that’s slowly killing him.’ I’d liked to have asked how much her forty-a-day habit was helping his lungs but I stuck to the script. It’s

As a rule, novels bore me. The concentration it takes to remember what you’ve read and who is who as you swipe from one page to the next is arduous.

‘I’m ready. I mean, I want to … I want to die …’ ‘Steven, I’m very sorry to interrupt, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to go now, as my shift is coming to an end. Unfortunately,

Yes, doctor, I’m going to replace my dead wife with a hamster. Marvellous idea.

you are a human being and, by design, human beings let you down.

I love how you’ve kept the smoke-damaged walls. It’s very shabby-chic.’