Heartland by Anthony Cartwright

Author:Anthony Cartwright
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Profile
Published: 2009-08-19T07:00:00+00:00

HALF-TIME

The salon was on the corner of Dudley Road and Juniper Close in a green dip in the road before it forked for Dudley and Tipton. Everyone called this row the little shops. There was a newsagent on the opposite corner and a council estate office next door. Over the road was a children’s playground. Pauline had nagged Jim about getting a safe, springy surface laid in place of the gravel. Behind that were big ash trees, from where the crows flew back and forth between the park and their nests.

The buses to Dudley and Tipton and the new one that did a circle of the estate before going off to Merry Hill all stopped a short way up the road. That was one of the things they’d thought would make here such a good spot. It had been hard work, taking on the salon after her mobile business – she used to just get in her little van and drive to her appointments – and there’d been times since when she’d wondered why she’d let Jim talk her into opening a shop. You had to get on, move up, apparently.

It was worrying her this morning. Lisa, the girl who had worked with her for the last couple of years, had left to go to Karen Woodhouse’s place. It was the third time this had happened, if you counted Karen herself, who’d driven around with Pauline in the school holidays and then come to train with her when she took the shop on. She wanted to feel angrier than she did but that was what it was all about, she supposed, getting on. Karen would pay Lisa more than minimum wage and she’d get to work with – and on – girls her own age. She’d get to do more cuts than pensioners’ specials. Pauline had realized the other day, at Gornal crematorium in fact, that her clientele was in danger of dying off. She didn’t know what she was going to do about getting someone new in. She’d started a new Saturday girl, who was no good, and she didn’t know if she could afford anyone in the week. The extra work was going to kill her, though. It was hard enough as it was, with Jim and Michael, and having to do more these days for her own mother and Jim’s mum. She’d thought she should wait until after the election before saying something to Jim; now she thought she’d wait until she didn’t know when, after the World Cup she supposed, after they’d got everything with Michael sorted out.

Sensing this, Kathleen had been helping out a lot in the last week. She had her own problems with Tom and Robert. You’d think things would get easier as they got older, with husbands and sons, but she wasn’t so sure. Kath had been coming in, doing some cleaning, popping back later in the day to sweep hair up. Pauline was going to try to force some cash on her later, easier said than done.

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