Everyone needs their cell phones

In Paris on the sidewalk outside the Gare du Nord, the Roma woman sits half in half out of her grey sleeping bag.

She speaks into her phone. She responds with a laugh. She looks happy. She sees me and her face drops. ‘Please,

miss…’ she says plaintively.

Further down the street is a big church. It is cool and dark inside.  Old homeless men lie on the wooden pews,

resting and relaxing. One man is nestled under the steps of the pulpit.  His phone rings. He puts his hand over it

and gestures for me to move away.

Kate Mahony’s short fiction has been widely published in among others, Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand, (Canterbury University Press), Headland, Mayhem, Takahē, Fiction Kitchen Berlin, New York Litro, The Fish Anthology, The Blue Nib, Blink Ink, and Fictive Dream. A number of her short stories have been finalists in international competitions. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. www.katemahonywriter.com.