The Josephs and other stories

By Polly Tuckett

A quiet disturbance lies at the heart of these stories in Polly Tuckett's debut collection. In one, a house restorer is seduced by a Catholic priest while the world around him sinks into a glorious pageant of decline and decay, in another, a weekend dad – part everyday superhero, part desperate soul – takes his daughter on an extended trip to France and writes a postcard home, and in the final story a cold and passionless hotelier comes to terms with her brother's suicide. "They kept him in a silver drawer, like lockers at the gym. They pulled him out and she identified him. That had been that. She couldn't cry, not then and not since. She was a monster, voilà tout."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stonewood Press
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781910413326

Polly Tuckett

Polly Tuckett writes short fiction and poetry and is currently working on a cycle of character-themed poems in French. Her work has appeared in various literary journals. She teaches French, English, yoga and creative writing on a freelance basis. She has two children and lives in Leicester.

Book preview

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First published in 2020

by Stonewood Press

Diversity House

72 Nottingham Road, Arnold

Nottingham NG5 6LF

[e-mail]

www.stonewoodpress.co.uk

All rights reserved

Copyright © Polly Tuckett, 2020

The author asserts her moral right to be indentified as the author of this work

ISBN: 978‐1‐910413‐31‐9 (paperback)

ISBN: 978‐1‐910413‐32‐6 (ebook)

Represented by Inpress, tel: [phone]

[e-mail]

Distributed by NBN International

Printed & bound in the UK by Imprintdigital, Exeter

Designed and typeset in Minion 10.5pt/12.5pt by

www.silbercow.co.uk

Cover illustration and endpapers by Martin Parker

Acknowledgement:

For their help and inspiration, thanks to my family, (especially Oscar & Rita), Jacqueline Gabbitas, Martin Parker, Geoffrey Bennington, Véronique Voruz and all my well‐wishing friends –PT

This is the eighth book in the THUMBPRINT series

Contents

The Terrible Mountains

The Josephs

The Cat With No Name

The Terrible

Mountains

You had to trust that your survival instinct would kick in, trust the will to control the body and determine a positive outcome. How could she know that whether on purpose or due to inexperience she wouldn’t veer off to the left into that stand of fir trees?

The white expanse was like death itself. Her weakness was a drug coursing through her body, taking hold. Her legs were trembling and her feet inside the unyielding boots felt as though they were swimming in blood. The only way was down, although she could take sidewise penguin steps up the mountain to the ski lift. But no, she couldn’t – look at those empty chairs sailing free on their way back. Paolo was dead. And she had to get down the mountain; she, an alien, placing her faith in the manmade prosthetics jutting from her feet. Sick of the drama, the tumultuous poeticisms and pseudo-philosophical pronouncements clamouring in her mind, she could not, though, distance herself from them.

The skis were pointed downwards, ready for the plunge. All around her people seemed glibly cheerful – determined, achieving, capable – people who knew not to question the sense of all things. A three year-old whooshed past, slaloming stylishly down the slope. The lift was passing overhead, the people sitting on the stupid little chairs seemingly unconcerned, legs dangling high above the abyss. And the sky so relentlessly blue. A set of feelings gripped her, nameless, overwhelming, and ice in her stomach.

Earlier that day she’d been taught snow plough on the nursery slopes, but now her knees wouldn’t bend right and the valley was rushing up towards her. She leaned back, lost a stick and swerved to avoid someone. Her skis crossed and ejected her. The jolt to her tailbone as she hit the ground brought tears to her eyes and once she started crying she