Body English

Body English: bodily twisting in an attempt to influence the trajectory of a propelled object / the irregular motion or spin of the propelled object as if it were influenced by this twisting. When Americans and Britons meet, the silent power of Body English can cause lives to swerve, collide and veer. These eight stories tell of people whose paths and destinies were nudged into new directions by Body English. Two bikers – one British, one American – take shelter in an abandoned prairie schoolhouse. Slowly, bizarrely, its splintered wooden desks, forgotten drawings and dusty, ragged flag evoke the forgotten myths of boyhood. In a Yorkshire restaurant, American Sally Meline meets an old lady whose life seems disturbingly similar to that of Sally’s dead mother. Soon, though, Sally finds she has been hooked like a fly in the web. Two young men, the last of the legendary hoboes, steal rides on a freight train. But when it lurches to a halt in the middle of an Oregon forest, they discover – chillingly – that they are not alone. At midnight in the Gulf of Mexico, four roustabouts troop onto the deck of an oil rig with a cricket bat. There, in the glare of arc lamps, they play their version of the English game. Little by little, an amazing enterprise takes shape: Louisiana Cricket. Put it down to the force of Body English …