Birlinn

would prove pivotal

because of what it symbolised:

you sneeze, ten people offer you a tissue, one prays for your soul, six laugh as though they’ve never sneezed in their lives, five secretly hope it’s the sign of a serious, perhaps fatal, ailment and thirteen people know it’s a cold and who you caught it from.

grew up wanting to murder everyone with loving-kindness.

Macy meant it when she smiled and she smiled often; you felt safe in her company.