The Authenticity Project

by Clare Pooley

She mentally filed that thought under “too uncomfortable to think about for the time being.” She’d no doubt revisit it later.

This obviously did not come naturally. It took a lot of planning and hard work for Monica to be this relaxed. She was getting up half an hour earlier than usual to do her sun salutations and repeat her mantras.

Riley, however, seemed totally comfortable in his own skin. He was so straightforward, easygoing, and uncomplicated. He was not a man of mystery or hidden depths, but—on the upside—he was completely honest and transparent.

“Tai chi is good for posture, circulation, and flexibility. Makes you live longer. I have one hundred and five years old.” Julian stared at her, not sure how to respond politely, then she grinned broadly, revealing small, spaced-out teeth, not big enough for her mouth. “It is only joke! Tai chi good, but not that good.”

Who would have thought that a day would come when the thing she wanted most in the world—more than money, sex, fame, or a pair of the latest Manolo Blahniks—was eight hours of uninterrupted sleep?

Alice had thought that she’d be totally attuned to her baby’s cries. She’d be able to differentiate hungry from tired, and uncomfortable from bored. But the reality was, all Bunty’s cries seemed to mean the same thing: disappointment. This is not what I expected, she appeared to say. Alice understood, because she felt very much the same.

Every time Alice walked down the stairs carrying her baby she had the same vision. She imagined herself tripping, and tumbling down the seagrass-clad steps. In version one, she kept Bunty hugged into her chest, then landed at the bottom, accidentally crushing the life out of her. In version two, she released Bunty as she fell, then watched as Bunty’s head hit the wall and she collapsed to the floor in a lifeless heap. Did other mothers spend their whole time imagining the various ways in which they might accidentally kill their own babies?

This was possibly the most important moment of his life and he was taking the advice of an eight-year-old. He was a total idiot. “Hazard, are you a complete idiot? Do you think I just broke into a locked cemetery, breaking the law for the first time in my entire life, because I was looking for a bloody Haribo?” Then she walked over to him and kissed him. Hard. Like she meant business.