Playing through powercuts

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">&;quot;Just makes you think, doesn't it
girls?&;quot;

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mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">I ask,
lighting a candle.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT:
150%">&;quot;What it must have been like

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">in the olden
days.&;quot;

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150%">

 

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">The freezer offers rump
steak:

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">(defrosted in a bowl of warm
water)

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">knuckled tender with dents

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">that retreat style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">to the pan. style="COLOR:
black">

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style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">The Aga gurgles. It
asks

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">if I recall my
mother's

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">unvarnished finger tip,
kept cold,

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">bobbing in a glass of
pink milk.

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style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">The blinking doctor had
told

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">my dad that it was
&;quot;strange:

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">by that I mean unusual,

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">that it's her
pinky.&;quot;

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style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">I remember her blue
scream

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">like a breeze from the workshop

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">which is the nursery
now.

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">We painted it yellow, drafts
excluded.

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150%">

 

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">Outside, the girls are cartwheeling

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">through the long grass;

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">they spray crickets like
sparks

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">off a circular
saw.

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">

 

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150%">

 

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">I hold out my wrist as if carrying

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">plates. At sixteen my left
arm

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">was penned in. My father scrawled

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">'what doesn't kill you' in
permanent

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150%">

 

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-pagination: none;
mso-layout-grid-align: none">marker. On the
day

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">the cast was cut

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">open like a
baguette.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">I wanted a tattoo
-

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">

 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">an asterisk - for a
list,

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">bullet point
wrongs

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">scrawled down my
inner

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">thigh, knee, calf, foot,
sole,

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mso-layout-grid-align: none">

 

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">but he would not allow
it.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">A lump of
coal or shrapnel

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;
mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">like a rock
beneath slabs of ice

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mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">sunk in my
father's palm.

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