Ben Turner

Sludge Bee

5:00pm, June, hot sun and dusty air. It’s quiet, but then it has been for years. Me and fifty other people stand on the platform waiting for no train to come. The mayor has ordered that we ‘uphold values of normality’ to pretend things are like they were. We do this every day, morning and evening. It’s not that we don’t work, we do. I am part of the crop research team. But we don’t leave town because it’s not safe. We might be able to give strawberries a go this summer.