- Selected by Dyani Sheppard
I love Jackie Kay’s short story collection Why Don’t You Stop Talking – the stories are witty, sharp and perceptive, largely focusing on the lives of women. We meet the protagonists in their everyday realities and their emotional interiorities are used to take speculative turns with the narrative. I was excited to come across ‘The White Cot’ to see what Kay does with the ghost story, and I think her narrative structure lends itself perfectly to the genre. The story centres on Dionne, who needs a relaxing weekend away with her partner, after feeling down and ‘going through the change’. As they enter the house they have rented for the weekend, they instantly feel unsettled, an atmosphere intensified by the creepy white cot that stands in the bedroom. At night, Dionne struggles to sleep in the unfamiliar room and in the blurriness between sleep and wakefulness meets the presence haunting her. Dionne drifts further from her partner and from sanity and a real trepidation is built as the ghostly activity intensifies. The story primes us to expect the paranormal, establishing a creepy setting and an unreliable narrator who carries an unresolved sorrow. The use of these classic tropes alongside a modern storyline creates a truly unsettling story that feels more sinister in its relatability.
Published in Reality, Reality, Pan Macmillan, 2012
A Personal Anthology 