“His words reminded me of oxygen masks , which had not, of course, put in an appearance over the past few hours. It was kind of a mutual cynicism, I said, that had resulted in the oxygen masks being provided, on the tacit understanding that they would never be needed. My neighbour said he had found that to be true of many aspects of life, but that all the same the law of averages was not something it paid to base your personal expectations on.”

© 2014 Rachel Cusk, Outline.