The Policy of Truth

"In my line of work you kind of get to know other people's stories. I used to call it 'the osmosis of carrying the sack'. I'm the mailman and I carry your secrets. Once you get down to the brass-tacks of it, life behind the hedges and up the garden paths of brassy north east Leeds resembles a soap opera. And where there is brass there is indeed muck. I can't resist riffling out a few letters every day. I take them home, steam them open, get comfy in my chair and then feast on the truth of them." But what happens when the truth occurs a little closer to home? What happens when you find out a terrible secret which could tear a family apart? What happens when the truth becomes too much to bear? A. J. Kirby's 'The Policy of Truth' is a dark, disturbed masterpiece of a short story. Compellingly told through a highly unreliable narrator, the tale examines the wounds left behind when the band-aid of secrecy is yanked off and the awful truth is revealed.