Going Somewhere?
Artwork by Olga Rybalko
‘No, not yet, it’s too soon, surely.’
She didn’t seem to hear me, so I said it again. ‘It’s not time yet.’
I saw her lips tighten, but her eyes remained downcast and she plucked a pair of underpants from the bedspread and shoved them into my suitcase.
That suitcase was a battered old brown time traveller, a hard leather brick of a thing with its corners capped in plastic protectors, brown to match the leather. Its sides were scuffed and boasted dozens of stickers, the tattoos of my early adventures across the world.
Some of the stickers were souvenirs; I was ‘King’ for a day at Graceland! Some bore the names of airlines long since gone the way of the blue suede shoe, TAA, the friendly way! But most were tattered and faded beyond recognition, t
