Chapter 17
Ros
Heather proved a godsend. That’s what Constance called her and Ros, although she’d never been one much for gods or angels or saints, thought Constance might be right.
It was Heather who supplied the smart suit that Ros wore as she waited to be called into the interview room.
It was, she realised, the first time she’d ever had to wear a suit for an interview.
Before this, she’d fallen into jobs. Her first job, with Wild Bird Ireland, had been a lucky break – she had ambled up to a table on careers day at university, struck up a conversation and ended up falling into an internship of sorts starting the week after she graduated.
Her last job working in a busy city centre bar had simply been a case of spotting a notice in the window and asking for the job.
So far as she knew, in both cases, she’d been the only applicant.
This thought didn’t exactly bolster her confidence for today, but in an effort to be optimistic, she had to admit that at least she was the only candidate sitting here and waiting for an interview.
In fact, there was only one chair placed in the corridor outside the interview room.
She suspected the room was used for everything and anything, but someone had stuck a foolscap page on the door with sticky tape, grandly asking for ‘Quiet please, interviews in progress’.
She’d been sitting here for almost half an hour now, waiting for someone to call her in, afraid to take the notes from her pocket that Heather and Constance had helped her to write up for the interview.
They’d been bloody smashing, both of them, really.
Constance so wanted her to get this job, sometimes it felt as if she wanted it just as much as Ros did herself.
As for Heather – well, she probably had more experience interviewing people for jobs than any number of old hands that might be wheeled out to grill her today.
And Ros knew she would be grilled. Because even if she’d done a brilliant job, it was fairly obvious, the more she talked to people, there had never been a female ranger in this neck of the woods.
Certainly, there had never been one stationed on any of the islands in the history of the state.
From what she could see, thanks to the website, female rangers mostly ended up in desk jobs.
They were to all intents and purposes glorified secretaries and administrators.
When she’d told Max she was applying for his old job, he’d nearly choked on the cup of tea his sister had handed him.
It wasn’t that she was underqualified; Max’s only qualification for the job was that he’d worked for a few years with inland fisheries and he’d had a yearning to get away from it all.
Island life – or maybe it was more reclusive life – suited him.
He told her he’d been the only applicant for the job.
That was twenty-five years ago. Now the ranger’s job was better paid, it meant graduates with all sorts of experience would be interested in the post. ‘Apparently,’ he told her with some amusement, ‘there’s a fella over in Ballycove who spent the last twenty years working with a foundation to save the Indian tiger.
He’s come back to Ireland because his kids are ready for college and his wife has had enough of hot weather to last her a lifetime.
’ Well, she’d never be able to compete with that.
She knew too, the added bonus of a free cottage thrown in made it even more attractive.
Ros sighed; she loved everything about the role and not just the cottage.
Although she had to admit that having a place to call her own was a sort of heaven she’d never dared to dream she might experience.
The job was challenging at times, but it was fulfilling in a way she’d never imagined work could be and she adored the island, everything about it, from the people to the landscape.
She loved it in every season. Even on those days when the rain felt as if it might cut slices from your skin, she loved watching it dance on the water in the distance.
She had friends here, good friends, chief among them Constance.
In fact, maybe because they had no-one else, Constance felt more like family than a friend, like a great old aunt you were particularly fond of, while still feeling that intense bond of something that went deeper than just the blood running through your veins.
Constance was a one-off. She lived like a poor church mouse and yet always had something in for when Ros called to visit.
It made her feel as if she couldn’t do enough for her.
Clearing a path or making up the room for Heather coming to stay seemed such small things in return for the deepest friendship she’d ever experienced in her life.
She found herself smiling as the door opposite opened to reveal a familiar face.
‘Shane?’ she managed and felt her cheeks go red.
For a second she felt as if she’d lost her balance, trying to figure out if he was interviewer or interviewee.
But there was an air about him, unmistakable: he was here to impress.
‘You applied for the job?’ She couldn’t quite believe it.
Why on earth hadn’t he mentioned anything when they’d talked about it on the island?
And then, suddenly, her next thought – if she herself was overqualified, Shane was overqualified with bells on, she hadn’t a snowball’s chance against him.
‘Yeah, sure, it seems like a nice job and you weren’t sure you’d go for it, so I thought…
’ He managed to look embarrassed. Then he remembered where he was and looked back towards the interview room behind him.
‘I think I’d really enjoy the work and make a big difference, so of course I had to apply. ’
‘But you’re…’ Ros wanted to say a consultant, a freelancer, an environmental engineer. But of course, all of those things meant nothing and everything if he just wanted a place to put down roots and make a living each week that didn’t fluctuate depending on when clients chose to pay him.
‘Perfectly suited to the job?’ he smiled and she felt as if she was just giving him an opportunity to impress the interviewers within earshot even further. ‘I know, but I just feel a real connection to the place. I want to be a part of restoring it to what it could be with a little care.’
‘Oh, well…’ She wasn’t sure what to say.
Later, she would try and find something positive about sitting there like a rabbit caught in headlights and the best thing she could come up with was that at least all thoughts of that near kiss had deserted her.
The embarrassment she might have expected to feel had evaporated in the face of almost certain defeat.
The nerves Ros had struggled with earlier multiplied when a woman appeared in the doorway behind Shane.
Sonia Mellet introduced herself. She sashayed her way into the middle chair behind a long table that was serving as an interview desk.
On either side she was flanked by two old codgers who looked as if they’d been dug out of a locked cabinet from the cold war.
At the end of the desk, Keith Duff shuffled papers as if he’d lost his lunch money and it was long past his dinner time.
‘So.’ Sonia fixed Ros with an even stare. ‘You’ve been filling in the ranger’s post for the last couple of weeks?’ She glanced at the CV before her, but her voice softened as she murmured her name. ‘Ros?’
‘Weeks, well actually it’s months, really, I’m there since the start of last summer, so nearly a year in fact…’ she said, and if the temperature was freezing in the atmosphere from the end of the table, she found herself warming to Sonia – two women together in a male-dominated industry.
‘Yes, about that…’ One of the older men, Tom, looked at her now. ‘Well done, I’ve read some of your reports, you’ve done a fair job, considering…’ He sniffed loudly.
‘And so I suppose, we’re on to your education and suitability for the post. You seem well qualified for the job?’
‘Yes,’ Ros answered and began to expand on her degree course and elements of it that she thought most relevant to being a wildlife ranger.
‘Won’t you get lonely, out there on the island?’ the other older man – Captain Jeffers – asked. ‘You’re from the city originally?’
‘I am from Dublin. But I don’t have family there any more. My mum died, before I graduated, and there had always been just the two of us, so…’
‘That’s unfortunate,’ Tom murmured.
‘I think what Tom means is that we’re so sorry to hear that,’ Sonia said.
‘Thank you,’ Ros said, because it was what you were meant to say.
‘The big question is, of course, why you didn’t follow up your degree with work in the field you were so well qualified for…
’ Maybe Sonia thought that this had to do with her mother’s death, maybe not, but she looked up, pulled her lips into something that was a thin smile.
‘You chose to work in a bar after you graduated, right up until you came here?’
‘No, that’s right, I suppose I sort of fell into it, I had debts to pay and…’ Ros was so thankful to see that Sonia seemed to be already moving on.
‘Hmm, everyone is trying to make ends meet these days, but from what I can see, young people still have enough for fancy coffees and overpriced bagels,’ the captain murmured.
‘And what do you think you bring to the job of ranger then, Miss… Stokes?’ It was obviously Tom’s question to ask.
‘Well, I’m efficient and…’
‘We’re not looking for an office cleaner.’ Captain Jeffers sniffed again.
‘Sorry, Ros, what he means is, we’d like more of an idea of what your personal qualities might mean in terms of broadening the post. You know, making more of it than any of the other applicants?’ Sonia said. It was obvious she was from HR, keeping everyone on an even, legal keel.
‘Erm, yes, yes of course. I was only saying about being efficient, because I think it’s important, especially if some emergency was to crop up, like a pollutant in a river or something along those lines. You need to be proactive, getting things moving along as quickly and properly as possible.’
‘Quite right too,’ Sonia agreed but she hadn’t lifted her head from the scoring sheet before her. ‘And is that it?’
‘Of course not.’ Ros hadn’t meant to snap, but at least it made Sonia’s head pop up and seemed to waken up the other two old sods as well.
‘I’ve already shown that I’m good at writing up detailed reports.
I’ve worked hard to keep habitats both monitored and safe.
I’ve carried out additional work, taking samples and checking them too, and sent back any results that I’ve had. ’
‘To be fair, she’s done all that, probably better than Max Toolis ever managed it, if the truth were told.’ Tom threatened to break into a smile at Ros and it gave her some small measure of encouragement.
‘And?’
‘Well, if I’m successful at this interview, I’ve already been talking to the local primary school teachers and they’re willing to have me come into the school regularly to talk to the children about conservation and about the wildlife and habitats on the island and how important it is that we keep them safe. ’
‘Good to get the kids involved,’ one of the older guys murmured again.
‘And, I’ve set up a beekeepers’ group. We’re hoping to start our first hives this year. We have six members and the plan is to set up communal hives in the grounds of the old monastery – we have permission and…’
‘That’s a great idea.’ Tom was positively beaming now.
‘I thought so, it took a few months over the winter, to get people together and on board. There was a big educational part to it all, you know, helping people learn about how to take care of the bees and what to look out for, but we should be getting the hives across in the next week or two, everyone is really excited about it.’
‘Hmm,’ Sonia murmured, but at least that led to a large tick on the page before her, which Ros hoped was good news.
‘And, of course, I’ve done quite a bit of work on the cottage, you know, cleaning it up, clearing around it.
I would hope to set up a kitchen garden, maybe revive the old vegetable patch, have a go at encouraging some of the native flora and fauna to make it more attractive to some of the local wildlife. And…’
‘Hmm, it’s all very admirable that you’re trying to live sustainably but…’ the grumpier old boy, Jeffers, sniffed.
‘The food I’m producing will be going for the most part to the local meals on wheels. It’ll mean people are getting organic produce and, hopefully, it’ll encourage more people to cultivate a small patch in their gardens.’
‘That all sounds very promising…’ Sonia said. ‘You’ve heard that there are moves to convert a large tract of the island into National Park land?’
‘Yes, I’m very excited about that, of course it’ll mean more work.’ It was work Ros would enjoy.
‘How’s that?’
‘Before it happens, there will be quite a bit of bringing the islanders round to the possibilities for the island if we’re successful.
At the moment, all the farmers will see is a loss of common grazing areas and restrictions around what they can do, I know that change isn’t always welcomed with open arms.’ She smiled warmly at this.
‘But I do feel, that with a little work, plenty of dialogue and a plan that involves the islanders, a National Park on the island will be great for the residents as well as the wildlife.’
The interview continued, and they seemed to talk for an age about how to bring the islanders on board, but Ros had thought a lot about it and, really, she felt she’d made some good points by the end. Points that could be actioned easily and make the transition as smooth as possible.
‘Right, well, that’s all well and good, but I think it must be almost lunchtime.
’ Keith Duff leaned back on his chair, made a big thing of checking his watch and then folded his arms behind his head and actually man-splayed.
Urgh, if Ros had thought before that she couldn’t like him any less, she had been wrong.
As she was leaving the building, Sonia caught up with her. ‘Well done.’ She squeezed Ros’s arm.
‘Thanks, but I’m not very hopeful.’
‘Why not?’ Sonia swung round to look at her.
‘Because there are no female rangers and you can see for yourself, in this area, well, it’s less likely to happen than maybe anywhere.’
‘Do you really want this job?’ Sonia asked.
‘Of course.’ Ros sighed. ‘Honestly, I’ve never wanted anything more and I think I could be good at it, I think I could make a real contribution.’
‘Then it’s even more important that a woman gets it, wouldn’t you say?’ Sonia smiled and winked at her before heading towards a Mini Cooper parked just outside the gate.