MORE FROM PORT BROKEFERRY

EILEEN WAKES SWEARING

‘Shit!’

She throws back the covers and leaps from the bed. She checks the alarm clock. Looks at it sternly. Stares it in the face as if it has done something wrong. As if it is the clock to blame for her being late. She holds it to her ear, long enough she knows it is still ticking. She doesn’t understand. She drops the clock on the bed and rushes through to the bathroom.

‘Shit!’

It’s the third time she’s been late since he spoke to her. For she will be late. He will have done everything by the time she gets there. All the things she has to do. All the big and little things. The things he pays her for. He won’t say anything at first. There’ll just be this thing between them. In the air. A stiffness.

She fills the sink with water. Doesn’t let the tap run first so the water is still cold. No matter. Time is behind her. That’s what her mother used to say. ‘See our Eileen, the time is always behind her!’ She washes the sleep from her face. Brushes her teeth. Sits down to pee. Already in her head she is inventing excuses for this time. Different things to say from what she has said before.

She dresses quickly. Yesterday’s underwear. A clean blouse and skirt that she’d ironed specially the night before. They were going to be busy today. That’s what he’d said. ‘So dress to make an impression. No jeans.’ She runs a brush through her hair, untangling it into something neater. She thinks about make-up and decides she can do that later, in the toilet at work. When she gets a minute. She throws things into a small bag, grabs her coat and hurries out the door.

‘Late this morning, Eileen,’ says Callum.

He does not say ‘again’. She is grateful for that. She smiles weakly and shrugs her shoulders and does not stop to share his cigarette. Not today. She pulls her coat on and quickens her step, as though Callum’s observation is the first she has noticed that she’s late. She feels him watching her back as she moves along the street.

Mr Struan Courtald stands outside the Victoria Hotel. His hands behind his back. Standing straight. His jacket buttons all done up. He nods to Eileen. He checks his watch, tucks his arm behind his back again and then says nothing. Eileen looks up at the clock on the front of the hotel. Under her breath she swears again. Not so Mr Struan Courtald hears.