Gang of Four by Liz Byrski

Author:Liz Byrski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2010-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Isabel stood in line at the post office waiting to collect her mail. There were still three people in front of her and the clerk was moving increasingly slowly as the minutes of the hot September afternoon ticked away. At last the American backpacker at the desk retrieved his letters and the queue moved up. The Alicante post office was in a narrow street of tall buildings a couple of blocks back from the spectacular Ramblas, and just a few minutes’ walk from the small hotel where she had been staying for the last three weeks. Isabel pushed damp strands of hair back from her forehead and craned her neck to see over the shoulder of the man in front of her. The desk clerk was checking every conceivable piece of identification belonging to a young woman who spoke rapidly to him in Spanish and rapped the desk angrily with her fist. The clerk’s pace did not change. Isabel checked for the third time that she had her passport and international driver’s licence. Her irritation was mounting. Doug had told her on the phone that he needed her signature on some papers for the bank. He would mail them to her and she should sign them and send them straight back. The post office arrangement had seemed a safer solution than sending them to the cosy but chaotic hotel, where everything seemed to happen by accident rather than design. The woman moved away from the desk and the man in front of Isabel stepped swiftly forward, slamming his passport onto the counter.

Isabel breathed a sigh of relief and moved up, her turn next, and now there were five people behind her. Overhead a dark wooden fan clunked rhythmically as it moved the heavy air around, and outside a couple of bare-chested young men in shorts, boots and hard hats started up a drill to cut through the concrete paving. She had been waiting for almost twenty minutes and was longing to be outside again, sitting at a cafe on the esplanade to catch the cool breeze from the sea. The old gentleman wandered away from the desk clutching a parcel and muttering under his breath and Isabel was at the counter in seconds, pushing her passport towards the silent young man behind the glass screen. ‘There should be one large package,’ she said carefully.

‘Qué?’

‘Uno!’ she said, holding up one finger. ‘Carta.’ She mimed opening an envelope.

‘Sí, sí, señora – una carta. Un momento, por favor.’ He noted down the details from her passport and then gave her a form to complete with the details of her address in Alicante, while he searched the pigeonholes and returned with Doug’s package and another letter.

‘Señora Carter, dos cartas! Two letters,’ he said with the flicker of a lazy smile. ‘Sign here, please.’

She signed and picked up Doug’s heavy padded envelope, gazing inquisitively at the second, unable to recognise the stamp or the handwriting. She moved away from the counter, rummaging for her glasses, and stopped by the door to put them on.

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