TALK TO CAITLIN
by Michael Callaghan
Competition winners UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
Michael Callaghan is a lawyer living and working in Glasgow. This is his second WM win, having previously been successful in the Ghost Story competition, and shortlistings in several others, including twice in the Crime Story competition. Other successes include first place in the Chorley & District Writers National Competition in 2015 and being shortlisted in the most recent HE Bates competition. He is working on other short fiction and the draft of a novel.
Iknow what everyone is saying. What they’re thinking. But they’ve got it all wrong. If you just knew the truth you would understand. Can I have some tea? Water then? Okay, doesn’t matter. I’ll start at the beginning. This started last February. I had been mail man at Turnbull Frank for 23 years. Still think of it as my new job. Funny how fast time flies. The job was fine. I kept myself to myself in the mail room. Most of the folk there don’t even notice me. I’m part of the wallpaper. They moan if the mail is late but that’s the only attention they give me. Suits me. I like my own space – nothing worse than people yammering at you. Sometimes the teams go for lunch or for drinks after work. They know better than to ask me. They know I’d refuse. I hate having to go to those things. I can do my own thing in the mail room – eat my Pot Noodle, play games on the PC. Be myself.
Then Caitlin started working for us.
First morning, she came in, smiling that smile of hers. ‘Hi!’ she says. ‘Sorry to trouble you – is it okay if I use the copier here? The one in our section is broken.’