I came downstairs this afternoon. My partner was talking to me. I couldn’t understand a word. Not the sentences, not the context — just the occasional word floating through, disconnected from everything around it. She was talking and I was watching, and none of it was arriving. There was frustration on both sides. Talking to…

I hadn’t been out for a couple of weeks. My own fault, but the sun was shining so we went — me on the scooter, my partner alongside. It was properly spring. Blue skies, birds singing, a water vole in the stream, squirrels everywhere, and the trees all out in their pinks and whites. Joyous.…