Wednesday 16 January 2008

a long way from home


‘Why not?’

He typed out on the miniature buttons, hitting number nine three times over to get a ‘y’ and the number one many times more to make a ‘?’.

He laboured to complete the message. Then hit SEND.

It took only a few seconds for the recipient to respond; her mind nimbler and text messaging technique more honed than his. Briefly he thought of his teenage Daughter and her lightning fire exchanges on the mobile phone she’d hankered after for her Fourteenth birthday. He felt a little sick, momentarily reminded of the youth of this young woman who he’d found himself longing for during the isolation and boredom of this business trip.

‘I don’t want to get involved. You’re married. I’m flattered, but No.’

He consoled himself with another drink and thoughts of his Wife, hunched over a laptop, working long into the night on a report she would submit the next morning. He asked himself if the desirable residence in the glossy suburb and the school fees were really worth it.

Image provided by and written in collaboration with Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux. More of Stefan's work can be found here and here Thanks Stefan.

1 comment:

stefan lubo said...

Thanks again, for looking at my images and seeing what is there below the surface and translating it into words. It's fiction and reality all bound up!