Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

All the voices

in for a coffee. He was all distracted and on edge, the way he sometimes is. I asked him right out if he wanted to stay and he ummed and ahhed a bit and then said could he come next week? And I’d agreed to it. Not that I owed him anything. He was a bully and out of his head in my opinion. Ciaran was one of the reasons my smile had to do overtime recently. And part of me was amused to think I was taking him in along with the rest. But it was a challenge showing a smooth exterior and I can’t deny it left me feeling depleted. I tried to encourage myself by thinking positively about the notion of surface gloss, telling myself that the more natural the appearance the greater

the opportunity for being yourself underneath.

It was fairly certain territory because let’s face it, all these types like Ciaran and Glea, and Noisy and flaky Blake, and even simple minded Aggie and her best mate Steven had no probs knowing what natural was. They thought they knew it through and through. So much so they didn’t even need to think of it at all. Natural just was and any fool would recognise that. Those idiots made me sick. Well, Ciaran is right barmy if you ask me. He was the poor baby if anybody was and I well remembered the day he set fire to the kitchen curtains because he didn’t like the look of the pattern. The innocuous pattern

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