Scavengers

Under a full moon - widow Lottie's odd encounter with a fox has a life changing effect. Amanda Root reads Dominic Power's tale.

After a heavy, gin-induced afternoon sleep, sixty-year old Lottie Nancarrow wakes up with the sense of dread that has plagued her since the recent death of her partner, the abstract painter Ned Stein, with whom she had shared thirty years of a happy bohemian existence. Lottie is treating her grief with alcohol, and is becoming increasingly eccentric, alienating herself from her small West London community and the life she shared with Ned. This evening, Lottie feels that something is wrong, some change in the atmosphere. Going to the French window of her garden flat, she sees a full moon hanging in the sky, and illuminated by the moon, staring through the glass at her, is a large urban fox - staring at her with a look that suggests some secret knowledge.