Margaret’s friend Helen stands near the shops in Euston station, surrounded by arrival and departure, refusing the young men who come up and ask her for money, any spare change. She eases her weight from one hip to the other as the tannoy announces that Margaret’s train is now twenty minutes late.
When Margaret does finally walk away from her train and along the platform, rather stiffly at first, she will see Helen almost at once and wave up to her. She will laugh.
Having embraced, Margaret’s case uncomfortably in the way, the two women will separate. Margaret smiles and presses Helen’s hand, leaves her and goes to a telephone. She calls Colin.
‘Hi.’
‘Hiya, how are you?’
‘OK.’
‘I’m later than I thought because of the train.’
‘I thought that.’
‘It was a good journey, though. Met some people.’
‘Men?’
‘One of them was, yes. I was thinking . . .’
‘What?’
‘I did some thinking on the way down. You know, it gives you a chance to do that. Nothing else around.’
‘And what happened?’
‘I’ll tell you later – I’ll have to go in a minute, this is all my money nearly gone. Listen, I’ll be back soon. Probably Friday, I think. Can you hear me?’
‘Yes. Yes, I can hear you. It would be nice if you came back. I would like that a lot.’
‘Well, it’ll be Friday. I would like that. Listen, I have to go, you take care.’
Margaret’s money runs out before she can say goodbye.
The late sun outside the station is very strong and from a distance its doorways seem white, more like curtains of white than ways made through walls and into light. Margaret walks to one door and sinks into brilliant air, becoming first a moving shadow, then a curve, a dancing line.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Epub ISBN: 9781446401880
Version 1.0
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Published by Vintage 2005
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Copyright © A.L. Kennedy 1993
A.L. Kennedy has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
First published in Great Britain in 1993 by Secker & Warburg
First published by Vintage in 1998
Vintage
Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London SW1V 2SA
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780749397586
Looking For the Possible Dance Page 21