Tous Les Mondes (2027)
It’s the strangest thing, isn’t it? When you suddenly see your parents as actual, fragile people. For the first part of your life, they’re just these massive, architectural structures. They hold up the roof. They feel permanent. And then one day, you’re having a coffee, or you’re watching them try to open a jar, and you realise they’re just kids who got older. They were guessing the whole time. Every rule they gave you, every piece of absolute certainty – they were just making it up so you wouldn’t see how terrified they were. Now I look at my own hands, or I catch myself saying something using their exact cadence, and it hits me: I’m the structure now. But inside, I’m still waiting for someone to come in and tell me exactly what the rules are.
From Sea Wall by Simon Stephens
