The word ‘Fiji’ has a sedative effect. When I tell people I’m living there, their eyelids curl, their shoulders soften, and I can see that they are imagining a pristine beach with bathwater waves lapping at their ankles. ‘Fiji…wow,’ they exhale, testing out the delicious syllables.
‘It’s not like the postcards,’ I tell them.
Issue 14
NEON WASH
£4
Mesa Schumacher is a writer, and an award-winning scientific and medical illustrator. Her art has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, books, articles and science journals. Her writing is published in Intima, and she is an alum of the Tin House writer’s workshop.