We weren’t happy together but we lived in a state of easy, mild contentment. We shared everything except the stupid fucking secret hanging round your neck. I imagined tiny photographs: portraits in sepia of your parents, their faces partially obscured by goitres. Meanwhile, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, maybe not even in a decade from now but one day: the planet would fall apart.

~ Jon Gresham

Jon Gresham Booksactually Future Happiness Hope Inspirational Ireadbooksactually Jon Gresham Love Math Paper Press Novel Past Photograph Planet Portrait Prose Secret Sepia Short Stories

She tried to remember all the times she had spoken to him. She replayed every moment she could remember at the beach last week. Not once had she led him to believe that she liked him improperly. And yet, last night, he had appeared as if she had invited him. She had given herself so willingly, so lasciviously, that he must have thought she had desired him all along. Perhaps she had, or perhaps she had not realised how pleasurable intimacy could be.

~ Mahita Vas

Mahita Vas Anchoring Attachment Belonging Booksactually Feminism Future History Home Homelessness Intimacy Ireadbooksactually Leaving Love Math Paper Press Memories Memory Moving On Past Rain Tree Reminiscence Roots Sglit Sglitftw Singapore Literature Uncertainty Women

She pulls me further down. More trapped souls reach out to us, dressed in clothes from decades past. The girl ignores them as we descend along the timeline – decade by decade – towards the birth of the island.

~ Julie Koh

Julie Koh Asia Australia Books Capital Collection Future Ireadbooksactually Math Paper Press Misfits Nation Prosperity Satire Short Stories Singapore Literature Sugar Sugar Coated Sugar Daddy Toffee