The shoe box I’d placed Mr Meow in sat atop my fold out table. As I lit my morning cigarette and sipped a cup of tea I wondered if it was disrespectful to smoke next to a body.
I decided that disrespect was in the eye of the beholder.
I’d often thought of Essie as I smoked. Remembering how we bonded over a few spare cig’s. That hadn’t made me feel disrespectful. I was smoking more than usual with the stress I was under too, I found it was a welcome few minutes break from life.
I’d wanted to sit on my balcony that morning to try and get some light and escape from the claustrophobic feel of the flat. I knew that with my determination to find Derek it might be the last I saw the sun, but the window cleaner was out there, just howling and scratching at the door.
To be honest the flat felt
