Absent
             Section one
            
             Absent is an English short story from 1990, written by Tui De Hann.
             The story unfolds in the capital of England, London, more specifically in the slums because we know that the individuals whom this short story revolves around are poor: "She hadn't usually had much money" (Lines 62).
             In this short story we are not been given any names of the characters, but it is somewhat irrelevant because there are only two characters, the mother and the son. The first character we meet, is the son; he wakes up in an unfamiliar apartment with a dash of unfamiliar faces. They all seem to be under the influence of drugs, including himself. In this apartment he tries to rethink his life and his situation, and looking at these faces and lifeless bodies, was like looking into the future. He has now reached a crossroad: he can either choose to stay in the apartment with all the drug addicts and end up like them: "They resembled a crowd of sleepy, yet money-hungry vultures around a roulette wheel." (Lines 68-69) or choose to leave the apartment and try to collect all those shattered bits and pieces that ones were his hopes and dreams for the future, and try to reconcile with his mother. For me the choice would seem obvious, but this is not the case for this guy, because breaking habits and redefining ones life is hard and time-consuming, furthermore leading a normal life also means going back to school, which is no easy task for this free spirit. I think he enjoys not being normal and not having to go to school everyday, he does not like being restrained by obligations, he just wants to be free, but then again the life he is plunging towards is not a free one, in that life you are a slave, a slave of the drugs you think you take willingly. When he has realised this, the choice does not seem that hard, at least be leading a normal life one can strive to be free.
             The other character we meet is the moth...