Fragments overheard in passing
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We are not in the business of building an empire.
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Use the brake if you need it, Dante.
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He labelled the non-existent desks instead.
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He's big in a small kind of way.
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That's where we had our profiterole tower made.
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It's a matey, blokey kind of thing.
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They had Neeley and Meylin and now they've got Mervin - you gave him a turtle for
Christmas.
What was found?
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On a bus some time before 2020
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The bus jolts over a bump and a woman loses her balance and half falls against a metal pole, sinking into a seat next to her partner. She touches her mouth, which may be slightly bruised and he touches her arm. Everyone looks back at their phones or through the windows or at nothing. I look across. Her whole lipstick mouth is printed onto the chromed metal pole, as though she has kissed it. It displays itself above her partner's head, the perfectly kissed pole, a clear proof of what happened, a record. I look back at my phone and when I look up again the couple have gone and the lipstick print has gone too. Did they see it and wipe it away, embarassed to leave a little of themselves on the bus? Or did someone's hand, reaching for support, smudge and remove it? Somewhere the traces of red still exist but I can't see them now.
Two photographs not taken
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