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Authors: Monica McInerney
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for the right terminal. At last. Now she just had to find the right checkin desk.
Joseph stood in the queue, waiting to check in. He glanced around the terminal, hardly noticing the crowds and the bustle, still preoccupied by his
conversation with his mother. The subject of Lewis had hung heavy in the car on the way to Heathrow. As Kate dropped him outside, leaning across to hug him goodbye and wish him well, the photo of his father seemed to be burning a hole in his pocket.
At first he’d joined the business-class queue, out of habit. The desk clerk had politely pointed out the economy queue to him. ‘Unless you’d like to upgrade, sir?’
Joseph had thought about it fleetingly, remembering all the horror stories about the 22-hour flight. But he’d dismissed the idea, he needed to do this research. ‘No, thank you. Economy will be fine.’
He finally reached the checkin desk and handed over his tickets, passport and backpack. The middle aged clerk dealt charmlessly with them, hardly meeting his eye as she issued instructions. ‘London to Singapore, change planes at Singapore for Sydney. Your luggage is checked all the way through. Here are your boarding passes. Proceed directly to gate thirty-one for boarding.’
Yes, ma’am, Joseph thought, fighting a temptation to click his heels. He turned away and headed past the long queue toward the departure gates.
Eva stood in front of the banks of monitors, her heart skipping as she saw the boarding message flashing beside her flight. Oh God, which checkin
desk was it? Number fifteen. Back the other way. She turned, bumping into a dark-haired man coming from that direction. ‘Oh sorry,’ she called back over her shoulder, not daring to stop.
Joseph looked back as the woman rushed past him, her long plait bouncing against her back. She seemed quite distressed. An anxious first-time traveller, perhaps. He hitched his daypack onto his back and kept walking.
Eva counted at least ten people in the queue ahead of her. ‘Oh come on, come on, please,’ she urged under her breath. She could feel her heart beating, her blood pressure rising. She tried to calm down. She was in the right terminal, at the right desk. Everything was fine now, surely.
She mentally checked that she’d brought everything - tickets, passport, purse … She’d been doing nothing but run through lists in her mind for the past few days. She felt like entering herself in the Guinness Book of Records: ‘World’s Most Efficient Traveller - Eva Kennedy, aged thirty-one of Dublin, Ireland. Booked and packed for a holiday to Australia in less than a week.’
Meg had followed her around like a puppy, more excited than Eva herself. ‘I just think it’s deadly! Off to Australia to recover from a broken heart. And I get your whole house to myself.’
‘Meg, I don’t have a broken heart.’ She didn’t. She had an annoyed heart, not a broken one.
‘Oh, you know what I mean. Do you think you’ll have a holiday romance? To help you get over Dermot?’
‘Not unless Lainey has a few spare men tucked away in her flat for me, no, I don’t think so.’
Lainey had rung daily with travel tips. ‘Drink plenty of water during the flight so you don’t dehydrate, that causes jetlag,’ she’d advised. ‘Move your legs a lot, you don’t want to get a bloodclot. Bring your own blow-up neck pillow, the ones the airlines supply are like after-dinner mints. Be sure to eat a banana just before you land.’
Lainey hadn’t actually explained what good the banana might do. In any case, Eva had barely been able to fit in what she did want to bring without worrying about a bunch of bananas.
Ambrose had given her a big hug and wished her well. ‘With your holiday and your decision-making,’ he’d said quietly.
She reached the top of the queue at last, and handed her travel documents over with relief. ‘I’m sorry, I know I’m late, my flight from Dublin was delayed. Honestly I thought I
Joseph stood in the queue, waiting to check in. He glanced around the terminal, hardly noticing the crowds and the bustle, still preoccupied by his
conversation with his mother. The subject of Lewis had hung heavy in the car on the way to Heathrow. As Kate dropped him outside, leaning across to hug him goodbye and wish him well, the photo of his father seemed to be burning a hole in his pocket.
At first he’d joined the business-class queue, out of habit. The desk clerk had politely pointed out the economy queue to him. ‘Unless you’d like to upgrade, sir?’
Joseph had thought about it fleetingly, remembering all the horror stories about the 22-hour flight. But he’d dismissed the idea, he needed to do this research. ‘No, thank you. Economy will be fine.’
He finally reached the checkin desk and handed over his tickets, passport and backpack. The middle aged clerk dealt charmlessly with them, hardly meeting his eye as she issued instructions. ‘London to Singapore, change planes at Singapore for Sydney. Your luggage is checked all the way through. Here are your boarding passes. Proceed directly to gate thirty-one for boarding.’
Yes, ma’am, Joseph thought, fighting a temptation to click his heels. He turned away and headed past the long queue toward the departure gates.
Eva stood in front of the banks of monitors, her heart skipping as she saw the boarding message flashing beside her flight. Oh God, which checkin
desk was it? Number fifteen. Back the other way. She turned, bumping into a dark-haired man coming from that direction. ‘Oh sorry,’ she called back over her shoulder, not daring to stop.
Joseph looked back as the woman rushed past him, her long plait bouncing against her back. She seemed quite distressed. An anxious first-time traveller, perhaps. He hitched his daypack onto his back and kept walking.
Eva counted at least ten people in the queue ahead of her. ‘Oh come on, come on, please,’ she urged under her breath. She could feel her heart beating, her blood pressure rising. She tried to calm down. She was in the right terminal, at the right desk. Everything was fine now, surely.
She mentally checked that she’d brought everything - tickets, passport, purse … She’d been doing nothing but run through lists in her mind for the past few days. She felt like entering herself in the Guinness Book of Records: ‘World’s Most Efficient Traveller - Eva Kennedy, aged thirty-one of Dublin, Ireland. Booked and packed for a holiday to Australia in less than a week.’
Meg had followed her around like a puppy, more excited than Eva herself. ‘I just think it’s deadly! Off to Australia to recover from a broken heart. And I get your whole house to myself.’
‘Meg, I don’t have a broken heart.’ She didn’t. She had an annoyed heart, not a broken one.
‘Oh, you know what I mean. Do you think you’ll have a holiday romance? To help you get over Dermot?’
‘Not unless Lainey has a few spare men tucked away in her flat for me, no, I don’t think so.’
Lainey had rung daily with travel tips. ‘Drink plenty of water during the flight so you don’t dehydrate, that causes jetlag,’ she’d advised. ‘Move your legs a lot, you don’t want to get a bloodclot. Bring your own blow-up neck pillow, the ones the airlines supply are like after-dinner mints. Be sure to eat a banana just before you land.’
Lainey hadn’t actually explained what good the banana might do. In any case, Eva had barely been able to fit in what she did want to bring without worrying about a bunch of bananas.
Ambrose had given her a big hug and wished her well. ‘With your holiday and your decision-making,’ he’d said quietly.
She reached the top of the queue at last, and handed her travel documents over with relief. ‘I’m sorry, I know I’m late, my flight from Dublin was delayed. Honestly I thought I
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