"It’ll Be the Death of All of Us" by Cath Barton

I was shocked to hear people’s laughter echoing round the walls. Dad would have

shushed them. Would have said something cutting about showing respect. I said nothing,

just looked down and twisted my handkerchief. Tightening it. Erica asked me what the

matter was and I felt my teeth clench. She meant well. She’d gone to all the trouble,

cutting sandwiches all morning, no doubt. All I’d had to do was turn up.

‘I don’t mind, Fran,’ she said.

I knew that she didn’t. And that she did.

‘It’s a wonderful spread,’ I said. ‘Dad would have loved it.’

‘Well, we should talk to people, make them feel welcome,’ she said, narrowing her

eyes. Turning from me. Rearranging the gala pie slices unnecessarily.

I knew there was nothing I could say to help matters. I went outside. Lit a ciggie.

Stood with the other smokers with our backs to the rough brick wall.

‘Fine old gent, your dad,’ spluttered one of them.

He had a terrible cough. Just like Dad’s. I said nothing, but I offered him another

cigarette, to be sociable. I knew Dad would have done the same.

Cath Barton is an English writer living in Wales. She's the author of four published novellas: The Plankton Collector (2018, New Welsh Review), In the Sweep of the Bay (2020, Louise Walters Books), Between the Virgin and the Sea (2023 Novella Express, Leamington Books and subsequently The Deri Press) and The Geography of the Heart (2023, Arroyo Seco Press). Her short stories have been published in The Lonely Crowd, Strix and a number of anthologies. Her pamphlet of short stories, Mr Bosch and His Owls, is published this spring by Atomic Bohemian.