10
New House
We are bemused by the appearance of a new house in our street. This makes it sound as if it grew overnight, which of course it did not. It appeared in a space we had not considered big enough for a house. Its newness made us all feel a little grubby by comparison and so we took against it. When cars pulled up and people got out to look around we took against them as well. We did not return their cheery waves; we crossed over to the other side of the street as we walked our dogs.
We gathered at coffee mornings, itching to discuss the appearance of this interloper, pleased for once not to be talking about whichever one of us had not managed to turn up that day, always wary then that word would get back to them of what we had said. It was not always easy to see where alliances
