Zoe Cummins

We read our own truth into the phrases.

But then, the low voice of context is heard again.

A radio friend asks me over for a listening session with a few others.

It's like a book club, but we all suggest pieces to listen to together.

We talk about interview techniques.

We discuss the full Schwartz.

In the radio community, we are all enthralled by the authenticity of this method.

It's a walkthrough that explores the territory between what is yours to tell and what is mine to request or want to know.

The lacuna, the space, the past, the trace, what we allow to rest in our memory.

The sounds, the smell, the pictures of that moment.

Capture it.

Be in it.

My sister and I use walkthroughs of our family home.

It calms her.

We start when she's nine and I'm seven.

If she was losing it a bit, even then I'd know.

We'd sit on the floor, back against the front door as we mentally walk through the house, naming as many objects as possible in each room as we passed through.

Later, when I visit her in hospital, she's convinced she remembers every detail of her life.

She can walk through it from the age of four.

To me, this seems like torture.