Alison Belle Bews

When Once I Was 'a Walkin'

With a jaunt in her step, she sang: “Oh, when once I was a’ walkin’ down the selfsame road for which I was named, a swampy, cocksure woman came my way, and in her hands a game. The rules she wrote were in a book, black as autumn night. But when I looked (I peeked o’ course), it did not look quite right. The letters swam on waterlogged pages, which she slammed tight in one of her rages.