It feels as though I will never catch up. Every time I see the news, a panel show, people playing instruments. Anyone being interviewed on the radio about anything. A name attached to an article. Casual sign-offs (by strangers) to emails.

2099 24 March Dear reader, You might be tempted to throw this manuscript into the fire. But for your own sake, please continue to read. I don’t exaggerate when I say that your life depends upon it. As for me, my life will be over soon enough. Or maybe it will be worse than over. As I type into the wall monitor before me, I leak

They said it was bad luck for a peacock’s feather to be winking at them as they moved into the house. They took it outside straight away and put it in the bin. But like old burial grounds and haunting ghosts, the fear of omens is usually a fear of personal failures.