The Extra Shot - Ian Gouge

That next person you pass on the street. How many connections through other people would it take to link you to them? 'Six degrees of separation' is the theory.

Now focus on a small coffee shop in a provincial town and consider its patrons and the people already connected to those patrons: the café owner, the gallery manager, the consultant, the 'self-made man', the femme fatale, the social worker, the poet and more.

How many steps exist between the pairs in such a cast of characters? Four? Three? Or fewer than three? Perhaps just the one.

With such short chains there is often more in play than mere connection. For those who are one way or another attached to The Extra Shot, connections also bring with them the baggage of time - not only via the detritus of history (some of it cloudy and secret) but also in individuals' hopes and aspirations for the future.

But not all stories are conclusively of the 'happy ever after' variety. In fact, very few as it turns out...