Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
‘G ood morning, ladies and gentleman. Flight 316 to Kuala Lumpur is now available for boarding through departure gate number two. Please have your boarding passes and passport ready upon arrival.’
‘Shit,’ I said under my breath. ‘Fuck.’
I picked up my handbag, took out my boarding pass and passport and made my way to gate 2. I flashed it to the woman on the desk. She scanned the paperwork like her life depended on it, looked me over, then back to my paperwork before handing it back to me.
‘Have a nice flight,’ she said before she moved on to the next passenger.
I followed the long corridor around some corners and then eventually it changed to something narrower. I knew what that meant. I was no longer inside the airport but between it and the plane, my last chance to turn and run back to Drangan, to the shop, to my usual Thursday, to my woodlice.
I thought of Una; she would be back in the village, probably eating something from Ellie’s bakery. I thought of Mairéad giving someone else a therapy session and felt jealous. I imagined my mother feeding the birds and my father staring at the mole humps, and I wished I was there with them.
I thought about what I would be doing if I were at home. I’d be in the stockroom on a stool with Niall and his clipboard, drinking tea and eating Rich Tea biscuits. He’d be telling me a fact about bugs and then I’d meet Una in the graveyard with my cheese and pickle sandwiches, yoghurt and banana. She’d have her tuna and mayo roll. I’d count the gravestones while she read the headstones and we’d make up who had the most interesting life and why. Then we’d talk about Carmel and Shaun did everything but and Una would say how much she hated him but she didn’t really.
An old lady in a pale blue raincoat and saggy black leggings walked slowly in front of me down the gangway. I didn’t overtake. I stayed behind her. Something about it made me feel safe, like driving in the slow lane on a motorway, not that I knew anything about that but it’s what I would have done if I could drive. People overtook me like they were in some sort of race, which didn’t make sense to me because we would all be leaving and arriving at the same time. I kept my eyes on the old lady, on her pale blue coat and saggy leggings.
I stayed behind her the whole way taking small steps, big strides.