It was feelings of both fight and flight that hastened Veronica\u2019s trip to Milan. She urgently needed time away to collect her thoughts and prepare for an inevitable fight to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Already she had mapped out her problem on a series of mental index cards: Simon; nightmares; feedback from friends; and exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the hotel the task began in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
First card – Simon. Simon said he wanted to marry her. He had started to move things into her flat. Money went missing, and statements showed withdrawals she couldn\u2019t recall making. He denied knowledge. Evenings with friends were interrupted by Simon turning up and being rather abrasive. He always seemed to know where she was. She began to be edgy and wary of him. She wanted him to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second card – Nightmares. These were filled with creatures that lived on humans; tapeworms, bed bugs, scabies, head lice, leaches. It took her a while to associate the word \u2018parasite\u2019 with the dreams. She kept a postcard of Goya\u2019s etching \u2018the sleep of reason produces monsters\u2019. No bats or owls in hers but she did feel some affinity with the strangeness of Goya\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third card – Friends. Veronica knew her friends were less than happy with Simon and offered observations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Are you sure he isn\u2019t tracking your movements through your phone and stalking?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Have you asked him about the cash that went missing?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018 Why doesn’t he pay some rent or buy some food?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Why is he so suspicious of your mates?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourth card – Exit. A bold sunset plan was required here which was beginning to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a parasite-free sleep Veronica walked through the city. The Prado was not far and Goya beckoned. To her side, she thought she caught a glimpse of Simon. Perhaps he really was keeping track of her. She saw him disappear behind a wall. The index cards began to merge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a tour of the Goyas in their sundry locations, Veronica headed for the gift shop and bought a reasonable print of the \u2018nightmare\u2019 etching and a large postcard of the same image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the cafe sat Simon. No surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018No euros for a coffee V. Don\u2019t suppose\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh dear, well I expect they\u2019ll give us something on the plane\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the airport lounge, Veronica\u2019s exit plan took form. She called a friend with a request to get her door lock changed urgently and asked her to meet up at Bristol airport. After this she removed the sim from her phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the plane, with Simon some rows in front, she wrote the following message on the \u2018sleep of reason\u2019 post card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Simon. We are over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please return the money you have taken from me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stop stalking me or I shall need to inform the police about your efforts at coercion and theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Veronica.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She planned to drop this on his tray as she left the plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As she looked down two louse like creatures crawled from her rolled up poster. She had great satisfaction squashing them between her thumb nails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was feelings of both fight and flight that hastened Veronica\u2019s trip to Milan. She urgently needed time away to collect her thoughts and prepare for an inevitable fight to come. Already she had mapped out her problem on a series of mental index cards: Simon; nightmares; feedback from friends; and exit. In the hotel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211","service":"facebook","timestamp":1773822978,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305","service":"twitter","timestamp":1773822979,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1792,1836],"tags":[1635,764,1844,1846,8,7,122,14,692,1845,863,1843,11,591,72],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1792","category-march-2026-art","tag-began","tag-card","tag-friends","tag-goya","tag-he","tag-her","tag-him","tag-she","tag-simon","tag-sleep","tag-some","tag-veronica","tag-was","tag-were","tag-your"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-GF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}