One Puzzling Afternoon

by Emily Critchley

Carrying a telephone around with you all day is just silly. Amy looks at hers constantly. When I asked her about it, she said she “checks it” to see if anyone’s got in touch. How ridiculous. We don’t go to our front doors several times an hour just to check if someone is there, do we?

“History is always interpreted. It is the method of organizing what has been left behind, the truths and the speculation. It is what has happened, along with what has been said about what has happened.

“To clarify, history is not just ‘the past.’ History is evidence of the past, but it is evidence that has gone through the wash, been spat out, regurgitated. It is the past pressed through cheesecloth, the essence of the past. Never, quite, the full story.”