other · 2026.10.27
The chairs were already arranged in a ring when I carried the last one in from the hall, and I set it down between Mrs. Ollerenshaw and the empty seat that had been left for the reverend, who was late. The room smelled of floor polish and the cold radiator smell of an old church annex, and the linoleum had a seam under my shoe that I kept finding and losing again. Everyone was talking about the raffle. Somebody had donated a ham.