CHAPTER FIVE: OUT OF OFFICE AUTO-REPLY

image: MAP

Colin slumped in the lone mid-century safari chair in his barely furnished living room. Thoughts escaped him or dwelled too long, forming a string of airy non sequiturs.

He scanned the room through the amber lens of whisky as if he was inhabiting it—inhabiting himself—for the first time. He noted an itinerary of lines in the parquet flooring, cracks in plaster, and cobwebs in high up corners, tracing them at a distance with his fingertips. Alternate waves of anxiety and elation coursed through him as the walls seemed to contract and swell in rhythm with the dilation of his pupils.

Yes, best stay put for a while, he thought to himself.

Commissioned and edited by Daisy Lafarge for MAP (June 2018). Full text available here.