Laura Croenen

The Second Death of Mr Arlington-Locke

Olive Arlington-Locke was four years old when her father died for the first time. Her family lived in Edinburgh at the top of a Victorian townhouse, in an apartment tastefully decorated by her psychologist mother. It had been a straightforward accident: a shifting of space, a window mistaken for a mirror, and a fall. After the funeral, the neighbours across the hall had gifted them a vegan casserole. It had sat, stubbornly, on the kitchen counter for ten days before its own burial in the food waste bin. Olive remembers watching the progression of decay on its mealy surface and imagining her father succumbing to the same process.