Vincentka vs garbage water – an original short story by Helen Oyeyemi
Winter: Each time you step outdoors your toes curl – well, they try to – and you hiss into your scarf. The temperature’s like a shock and awe manoeuvre; it stupefies. Morning after morning either I or the lady at the newspaper kiosk make the announcement, “This is it, it’s the coldest day of the year, it can’t get any colder than this”, before bursting out into bitter laughter at the naivety of having had exactly the same thought the day before…