The octopus within

Discovering the creatures inside

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  • Published 20240507
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-95-5
  • Extent: 203pp
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THERE ARE SMALL things that have changed since I was told I have cancer.

My mother, with whom I’m very close but in a non-­sentimental kind of way, has started to send me emojis in her text messages – something she’s never done before. She’s not an effusive, emoji-­using person, and I like and admire that about her. The expanding pink hearts at the end of her messages feel out of place. She has also started to text things like You have a beautiful smile in response to photos I’ve sent her – again, completely out of character, and worrying because to behave out of character means that something has happened to knock you out of yourself.

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Home is where the haunt is

Ghosts, like people, tend to be attached to a particular place. The term ‘to haunt’ in English has three linked meanings. First, for a ghost to manifest itself at a place regularly: a grey lady who haunts the chapel. Second, to be persistently and disturbingly present in someone’s mind: the sight haunted me for years. Third, to frequent a place often and repeatedly: that’s his old haunt. Home and haunting go hand in hand. Ghosts don’t haunt an entire city. They haunt a specific house, a dwelling, usually assumed to be the place where they died.

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