Page 79 - The Midnight Library

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And a rather unhelpful contact titled, simply : ‘Work’. And there was only

one recent message from ‘Work’ and it said:
Where r u?
ere was one name she recognised.
Dan.

Her heart sank as she clicked on his most recent message.
Hey Nor! Hope Oz is treating you well. This is going to sound either corny or creepy but I
am going to go all out and tell you. I had a dream the other night about our pub. It was
such a good dream. We were so happy! Anyway, ignore that weirdness, the point of this
is to say: guess where I’m going in May? AUSTRALIA. First time in over a decade. Am
coming with work. I’m working with MCA. Would be great to catch up, even for a coffee if
you’re around. D x

It was so strange she almost laughed. But she coughed instead. (Maybe she
wasn’t quite so fit in this life, now she thought about it.) She wondered how

many Dans there were in the world, dreaming of things they would hate if
they actually got them. And how many were pushing other people into their
delusional idea of happiness?
Instagram seemed to be the only social media she had here, and she only

seemed to post pictures of poems on it.
She took a moment to read one:

FIRE
Ever y part of her
at changed

at got scraped off
Because of schoolyard laughter
Or the advice of grown-ups

Long gone –
And the pain of friends
Already dead.
She collected those bits off the floor.
Like wood shavings.

And she made them into fuel.
Into fire.
And burned.