Rock Paper Scissors

by Alice Feeney

We’re all responsible for casting the stars in the stories of our own lives, and she cast me in the role of her husband. Our marriage was an open audition, and I’m not sure either of us got the parts we deserved.

‘Cassiopeia was a queen in Greek mythology whose vanity and arrogance led to her downfall.’

My stories are real. Does that make them not worth listening to?

If you don’t have anyone to love or be loved by as a child then how do you learn? But then, isn’t love like breathing? Isn’t it instinct? Something we’re born knowing how to do? Or is love like speaking French? If nobody teaches you, you’ll never be fluent, and if you don’t practise you forget how…

Trust can’t be borrowed, if you take it away you can’t give it back.

I do know that the lies we tell ourselves are always the most dangerous. And I know that sometimes the thoughts we hide in the margins of our minds are the most honest, because they are ours alone, and we think nobody else will see them.

Sam resisted the urge to offer his condolences for Patty’s sister, who he was sure had been murdered by a girl called Dorothy near a yellow brick road.