Welcome to Remnants! Thanks for posting. What exactly is the premise of this story?
There was a competition for someone to be the Writer in Residence at a place called Talliston. They wanted a story entitled "An Extraordinary Room". This was my entry :) It may not make a lot of sense and I'm sure they'll have plenty of competition from people who offer things which are a lot less surreal than this. One of those is sure to win. But it was great fun for me to write it. There are all sorts of things in there which I have jumbled together: there WAS a girl called Voirrey in the Isle of Man who claimed that a talking mongoose lived in their remote farmhouse in the Isle of Man in the Interwar years of the 20th century. The DUP and the Tories WERE working on cobbling together some sort of political accommodation at the time I wrote this story in 2017. I AM a member of the Ghost Club. I DO have a collection of soft toys including a rabbit called Bunny Form. They all have personalities! Her character DOES involve her being in love with herself… essentially put it all together and it's a story which probably only makes sense to me (and I'm not sure if it even does to me lol!). Essentially if your money is made elsewhere and writing isn't going to earn you anything but is rather a welcome escape from this frenetic world we live in, you can afford to let your imagination run wild and write a story that you yourself actually want to read. In this case - as is often the case - I'm making myself laugh using my own weird sense of humour. If anyone else finds it funny as well or gets anything out of it then that's a plus :) PS some of us at work have taken to creeping up behind each other and saying, "Northern Ireland" to give the other person a jump! And the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and London are three amazing places that I absolutely love.
Well, it is a wonderfully weird little story that I'm afraid I didn't exactly grasp. But anyway, I'm glad that you felt like writing, and I look forward to seeing more.
Good to read you again, Jonty :)
I liked the fun surreal in-between-nesses.
Mertob's secret other-life, away from the Left and Right, the DUP and Tories.
The magical Isle of what-ifs between Ireland and England. Those two realities.
The space between double walls, where a slim farmgal might play, or a talking wabbit.
This also feels like a great opening chapter, btw, say in the ongoing adventures of Mertob Mub, Ghost Club member in good standing…maybe, huh, maybe?
Now that Labour is in, is Mertob truly out, politically exiled to the wilderness on Jersey?
Whatever might a member of the Ghost Club stumble over there, huh?
I will be watching this here space ;)
You've understood me so well. I love your description of the story with its "fun surreal in-between-nesses" :)