jessie

. . . . in which i am with jessie on an old british railways train. the seating is absurd like a restaurant booth and jessie is sat in the corner. she is pregnant and wearing dungarees and i am helping her in and out of them as we can’t decide if they are the right way round or not. a passerby asks us about them but we are unable to say anything about them until we have decided. they appear to be made out of some silly material like black vinyl and they want to stay flat, like they are padded or filled with some kind of foam. jessie asks me to take a picture of her with her phone and i oblige. it is awkward because she wants it to look coupley like i am taking the place of her husband. she urges me to pose her in this way and i decide to rest her feet on my knee and arrange my legs at an angle that seems pleasing, especially with my socks which i think are striped. reminds me of baby reindeer. i start taking photos but getting the right composition feels impossible, i move around in the space available but something always seems to be in the way, notably the head of wickie, a sickly parrot. there is the suggestion of some repressed sexual abuse but i can’t name it.. . . .