Winter falls

Every few minutes, a stretcher was wheeled past, with a patient gasping into an oxygen mask.

- CHARLOTTE GRIMSHAW

Winter surprised us, coming over the dull autumn streets with a shower of rain. After the drought, we welcomed the downpour, even as it went on and on and began to flood sections and parks, Nature increasingly having only one mode, it seemed: excess. Then Covid arrived and laid us low and left us with strange, lingering ailments: lassitude, inflammation, vertigo.

I fell over walking the dog in the mangroves and lay sprawled in astonishment on the muddy path. P skidded on a large bulldog clip at work and crashed to the office floor.

One night, we woke to a heavy bang downstairs. N was staying with us and after a moment’s confusion I said, “He’s fallen over.”