Superstitions

Ffion raises her head from the pavement, merely as a matter of experiment. The brain is a smart device, Ffion knows that, smart in that whether she lies with her head on the side, parallel with the flagstone, or slightly raised, as it is now, at what might possibly be thirty degrees from the horizontal, she perceives the world to be orientated the same way.

Ruth Brandt is studying the MFA in Creative Writing at Kingston University. Her short stories have previously appeared in Litro and have been published in Gold Dust, Candis, Yours and Ireland's Own magazines. They have been included in the Take Tea with Turing and Bristol Short Story Prize 4 anthologies, performed by Liars’ League, and read at literary festivals. Her poetry has been published in the Irish Literary Review. She lives in Surrey with her two sons and is currently working on a novel.