Assistant Editor Blessing J. Christopher: In this piece, Patricia Newbery explores the nexus between memory, time, and space. The story unfolds in one fluid sentence and inevitably establishes a connection between the past and the present.

By Night in Sanaa

There was something ecclesiastical about the room in Sanaa, and it wasn’t only the stained glass, the bruises, birthmarks and port-wine stains it cast on our skin by moonlight, the tinted pools it formed on the stone floor, it was the whiteness too, reminiscent of Old Romney years ago, the implied arches in places, spines curving briefly from corners, the view of mirroring facades with alabaster fenestration hinting at decorated style, and, often, the wintry hush of our not getting on, though behind the old doors at milder times, we read Dracula to each other, a strange gospel, but one easy to laugh at and cast aside.

Patricia Newbery’s work has appeared in Ambit, Cafe Irreal, The Citron Review and elsewhere. She’s a British/Irish translator and editor and has lived in Egypt for 25 years.