There was a long conversation then, and many qualifications and a great deal of sympathy; but the long and short of it was that I had aggressive macular degeneration, which is a fancy way of saying: I was going blind.

I hate Interstates. They’re boring, dangerous, and packed with people who pay little attention to what they’re doing. I love two-lane roads: the ones that meander through the countryside.

“This is it,” he said. “This is the big one. After years of carrying crap, we’ve finally got us a job that’s going to change our bank accounts and bloat our pensions.

Deacon Park is where they bury the bodies. For a cold-blooded killer, a huge tract of wild land in the middle of the city can be an indispensable resource.

‘Sofia, let me in, I didn’t mean nothing,’ shouted Charlie as he banged his fists on the door. ’It won’t happen again, I promise. You can come out now, darling.’

Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. When she realised that his eyes were upon her, she said in a throaty voice, ‘Oh, don’t mind me, dear. You carry on.’

Mrs. Henshaw, grey-haired and ancient before her time, resting her rheumatic twig fingers in her pinny lap, sat facing a large wall mirror and rocked the gloom away.

“The Police are coming to the Omni!” Addison shouted across the campus quadrangle in early October of 1983.

The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. Ghostly, eldritch, like Dave had stepped into another world. The branches swayed with a slight breeze, and the leaves rustled out a mellifluous harmony.

Ambling along the paths of his childhood apartment complex, Will told me stories from before we met.

One stormy night, as I tried to sleep, The scary monsters began to creep.

It felt dark, but not uncomfortably so. Sometimes they dimmed the lights or pulled the curtains, but this felt different.

On the first day of ninth grade, Fitzhugh Hardee Rainwater met the girl who immediately took up permanent residence deep in his heart.

They were in a shop together. It was Ryman in the Strand, opposite Superdrug. She had spent the day shopping in the West End. He had been at work. They hadn’t seen each other for more than twenty years.

Our college reunions were usually boisterous affairs, but this one was subdued. Subdued, that is until the cocktails soaked in.