How Ghosts Affect Relationships
By John Patrick Higgins
“I’m a casual host. I stand on the concourse of an Arts institution in company-issue slacks that have the creases built in. I am not the original owner of these trousers. I wear a badge that tells people, ‘My Name is Irwin’ (my name is not Irwin).”
Not Irwin is a man written in smoke, drifting through life without touching the sides. You wouldn’t notice him if you were both in an otherwise empty room. He’s vertical oatmeal, incandescent with beige.
Foolishly, he’s fallen in love. Lacking the wherewithal to communicate his affection to Siobhan, his oblivious intended, his moony expressions fire off, unnoticed, like radio-waves slowly decaying into the blackness of space. Siobhan can’t get involved, anyway. She has problems of her own.
But they’re nothing compared to Miri’s. In the carpark of a Home Counties Waitrose, she spills her Bag for Life over the tarmac, shocked by the sudden manifestation of a boy she knows, absolutely, to be dead…
John Patrick Higgins is a writer and director. He lives in Belfast, where it rains.