Photography
Charlie Burness
Lotte Mitchell Reford is an MLitt Creative Writing
student at the University of Glasgow. She edits
creative writing journal From Glasgow to Saturn,
and has previously had work published in MISO
magazine.
I
In the
Eating
Lotte Mitchell Reford /
stop on the front step to sniff before I slide my key into the lock. Cooking oil – even outside you can smell
it.
‘He’s gone?’ I ask, and my mother, standing at the stove, says, ‘why you sound so pleased?’ Then she looks
me up and down and points, ‘Shoes’ she says, ‘don’t think I’ll let you be getting away because he away for the
weekend.’
I slip my shoes off and set them neat like dominoes by the kitchen door. My stepfather doesn’t like fried
food, although you wouldn’t think it to look at him. ‘It gets into everything,’ he says, ‘you can smell it in the
curtains and it smells cheap.’
The first of the mandazi are cooling on a plate on the table, their grease painting halos on the kitchen
towel. They are still hot to the touch, their brown skins crunching a little as I choose the biggest. There is a little
stretch to the dough inside. I have to twist and pull the bun in two, and then I hand half to my mother. I push the
nose of my piece into the bowl of light brown sugar on the table, and my mother shakes her head a little, but then
her shock-white teeth come down on her mandazi in a smile.