Write-In 2019: 'The Keepers' by Maxine Davies

They never stay for long. There’s just me and wor Tessa now. Yi can see ‘em from the top of wa lighthoose, pickin’ tha way through the narrow streets and tip-toeing around corners, hands held oot like the world’s made of sharp edges. I see a bairn hoy ‘imself over the waal, tiny thing, land with a dull thud. Me heart’s doing somersaults inside me chest. A scramble through the hatch, reet fast.

Tessa, a says. Another one.

She breathes, in and oot, in and oot. Pops the ribbon bookmark carefully between the seam of the pages. They never stay for long.