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Fiction

The Knife Drawer

The baby is six weeks old and perfect. The knives are in a suitcase on top of the wardrobe.

The Written Life · · 10 min read

The knives went first into the drawer under the hob, then into the high cupboard with the wedding crockery, and on the ninth day, at four in the morning, into the grey Samsonite on top of the wardrobe, which has a combination lock. Tara set the combination with her eyes half shut so that she would not properly know it. She knows it anyway. It is the date of her own birthday, backwards.

There are six of them, in a beechwood block, a present from Arjun’s sister. The block is still on the counter with its six empty slots. She has turned it to face the wall.

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