Reibus

I wrote this short story on 8 August 1987. It was shut up in my papers for a long time, and now it's the first time it's been published online!  When Anna came into my life, it was like a fresh breath of spring. My being came alive, pulled back from the abyss of my own creation as I failed to accept divorce from a wife I thought was my world. I didn’t eat properly; the weight I had lost had only increased the age of the reflection staring back at me, hollow-eyed, from the mirror. Routine had become automatic, which was probably the only anything domestic got done. But I had my work, and in that I lost myself, becoming obsessed with making a dollar any way I could. Even though I had no-one on whom to spend my accumulating wealth. Anna appeared in my office one overcast day, in answer to an ad I had placed to rent out the room over the shop. She was not the first one to apply, but she had a presence, a strength of personality that made itself felt despite her shy