Spider in the Corner of the Room (The Project Trilogy)
Page 29
Balthus nods. ‘Of course.’
Once we are further along the road, I raise my arm to hail a taxi. A cab pulls over, and, as I start to help Balthus into his seat, something ahead catches my eye.
I squint. On the tarmac, by the front wheel of the taxi, is a small, black metal spider like the device from the counselling room. Kurt must have been carrying it as he ran after me, must have dropped it from his jacket. I stare at it for two more seconds, then staying as steady as I can, slide in beside Balthus.
As we set off, I turn and peer out of the window.
The metal spider lies crushed on the road, flattened, in pieces ready to be mended, ready to be put back together, refashioned anew. The taxi speeds forward and, slowly at first then faster still, the spider fades into the distance until it completely disappears.
As if it were never there at all.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Sometimes we are too quick to judge people. We see someone and if they are even slightly different, we label them as odd or a freak or weird. An outcast. It starts from early childhood and remains with us as adults. But why?
Writing the character Dr Maria Martinez helped me to challenge the perceptions of what we class as normal, of how we judge. Because, when you think about it, really, there is no ‘normal’; there is just me, you. Us.
As I researched Maria’s character for this book, I realised this more and more. It’s what makes the world fascinating—and what can sometimes, through the misconceptions of others, drag it down.
But one thing alone remains true, one phrase that, no matter what happens in this ever-changing globe of ours, stands tall in the test of time: we are all different, yet all the same.
ISBN: 9781474024587
THE SPIDER IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM
© 2015 Nikki Owen
Published in Great Britain 2015
by Harlequin MIRA, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited,
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