Salt Slow

by Julia Armfield

She will canonize her former loneliness with a tang of self-pity, pretend to revel in the reestablished silence, the remote control and sofa to herself. Before him, she had often wondered whether solitude was a skill one could lose like schoolgirl Latin, or whether it was simply a talent one acquired, bike-like, never afterward forgotten. Now, of course, she knows her limits better. By the end of a single evening alone, she is usually sated.

For her part, Maggie had always found it a little unfair that her mother should encourage her to be fiercely independent, whilst also making a horror story out of being alone.