Sorrow Bound by David Mark

Author:David Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Monday morning, 9:18 a.m.

The same room in the same health center on the same road.

Too hot to breathe.

Aector McAvoy: bone-tired and unshaven, aching across his shoulders and back. He has bags under his eyes and Band-Aids on the backs of his hands, and the blue suit he is wearing was chosen because it has the fewest creases rather than none at all. He’s spent the weekend lifting furniture in and out of a moving van. Has carried mattresses and bed frames up flights of stairs and climbed in through a first-floor window with a wardrobe on his back while a crowd gathered on Hessle Foreshore and shouted encouragement. He has spent two days struggling with cardboard boxes full of books and shoes and pots and pans, wrestling with a sofa that wouldn’t fit through the bloody front door, despite the careful measurements he had taken when they viewed the place. Spent an hour with his fingers in an ice bucket borrowed from the Country Park Inn, after Fin decided that tickling Daddy while he carried a washing machine would be incredibly funny. This morning, he selected his clothes from a suitcase and a variety of trash bags. He is trying not to dwell on the fact that his socks don’t match. He has already made up his mind never to move house again. He’s exhausted and sore and doesn’t want to be back here. Not back in this airless room, with its traffic sounds and buzzing flies and stupid plastic chair.

“It went okay, yes? The move? It was this weekend, wasn’t it?”

Sabine Keane is giving him an encouraging smile. He tries to return it. This could be his last session, if he plays nicely.

“Hard work,” he says. “I didn’t know we had so much stuff.”

“You didn’t get movers in?”

“Sort of. A man with a van. I thought he’d be more help than he was. He was very good at drinking tea and smoking cigarettes.”

“So you did it all yourselves?”

McAvoy gives a laugh. “Roisin was more of a foreman. She’s not built for lifting sofas. She and Mel kind of directed . . .”

“Her friend, yes? You’ve mentioned her before.”

McAvoy clears his throat. Stares at his tie for a while. “She’s been through a bit of an ordeal. There was an incident at her shop. Had a bit of a to-do with a drug dealer and helped the police nab him.”

Sabine looks impressed. “So you’re tolerating her more readily?”

McAvoy wonders if his answer will lead to another note in his file. “I don’t dislike her. I never said that I did. And Roisin thinks she’s great. Is that important?”

Sabine shakes her head. She looks up at the ceiling. Looks down into her open handbag. Appears to be working out what to say.

“This could well be your last session, Aector. If I count the last one.”

She says it with a smile. Warm and friendly. McAvoy nods hopefully.

“Yes?”

She sighs. “I’m not sure you’ve really told me anything.”

McAvoy looks frustrated. He opens his mouth and makes gestures with his hands, then breathes out as if this is all too much.

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