A World This Size — John Bryson

A World This Size.

You will have a restaurant like this in your city.

And, if you have spent time eating alone in restaurants, you will have felt the reverie of the imagination, which will cause you to scrutinise other diners for clues to their personalities and attribute to them lives you could find interesting. This is the story here.

A little Baroque music struts overhead. Here a man sits by himself. He is waiting on a martini. His fingers drum the cloth. Soon he falls to searching faces at other tables for something to hold his interest. His name is Freddy Unthank. Freddy would be hurt if we were to confuse his somnolent gaze with boredom. He has an eye for foible, and when he comes here (most Thursdays) he chooses his seat for the best view of the room.

Did the Lord Say Anything About a Serpent?

The scene is Paradise. In so far as time meant anything when the biblical world began, it's now around midweek, in the second month ever, and as for humankind, it is small enough that the singular pronouns, You and I, cover everyone there is.

For two voices, a sketch, at the very Beginning of the World.

I Keep Meeting My Grandfather.

Elspeth's grandfather has died. The reading of the will by the family solicitor shocks her parents who expect to be the beneficiaries. GranDoddie, as she has always called him, has left his substantial acreage to Elspeth.

And I hope this is not all Elspeth inherits from me.

Elspeth's parents are prim and conservative. GranDoddie attacks the pretentions of their luncheon guests.

He embarrassed us all. But I kept his silent score, following the points wherever he slammed them with the vacillating eyes of a tennis buff. There was seldom a re-match.

Kindly Death, a Right to Life Protest and a Shy Semite.

A VISITATION of Kindly Death is recorded by the Law List in a glass cabinet beside the sandstone doorway of Court Four in the City Courthouse, the sole item for the day's business, and for many days:

Trial: R v Ali Bashir. (1) Murder (2) Assist Suicide.

An elderly man will soon die of Motor Neuron Disease. He is determined to be present at his own wake. After the party he is found dead. His spouse, a younger Middle Eastern man is charged with his death.