The wipers squawked as they battled to keep the windscreen clear.
‘I’m going to be late,’ Alex Granger muttered to herself, as she strained to see through the gap in the condensation rapidly rising in front of her. Glancing down momentarily she switched the blower to full, the sound of the rushing warm air drowning out the radio.
A giggle from the back seat caused Alex to look up at the rear-view mirror. ‘At least you’re happy enough,’ she said, adding a smile as her eyes met the blonde girl grinning back at her.
A car horn sounded from behind, the driver gesticulating that the traffic lights had finally turned green. Raising her hand in acknowledgement, Alex lowered the handbrake and moved forward, looking left and right for the name of the road where the car park was located. And as if her prayers had been answered, she spotted a large blue ‘P’ on the next street sign, and indicated to the right. The driver behind gave a second blast of his horn as he swerved around her.
‘What’s the hurry, arsehole?’ Alex shouted at the window, suddenly realizing that Carol-Anne could hear. Looking back at the reflection of her two-year-old daughter, Alex quickly apologized. ‘Just ignore Mummy’s crazy words.’
Carol-Anne giggled again.
The windscreen still wasn’t clearing, and as Alex spotted the entrance to the car park up ahead, she realized the car’s fans weren’t even aimed at the windscreen. Adjusting the dial, she silently cursed Ray for not putting them back. Her husband had borrowed her car the night before to go to the gym, and she was certain he must have interfered with the way she liked the car to be set up; she’d had to move the seat forward when she first got in that afternoon. She’d remind him when she saw him later, she thought. Right now there were more important things to worry about, like finding a parking space, dropping Carol-Anne at the crèche, and running to her interview. She should have phoned ahead and postponed the interview when traffic had been far heavier than she’d anticipated. It had been the only interview she’d been offered out of the dozen or so jobs she’d applied for in the previous three months, and she hadn’t wanted to make the wrong first impression. Arriving late wouldn’t be a good start though either, she knew.
‘Think positively,’ Alex reminded herself, as she pulled the car through the entrance and began to hunt for a free space.
Carol-Anne giggled and sang away to herself in the back.
‘Tell Mummy if you see an empty space,’ Alex hummed along, as she glanced left and right, completing a full tour of the single-level car park, reaching the exit without luck. She was about to give up when she spotted a yellow umbrella, moving towards one of the cars behind them. Reversing towards the bright glow, Alex lowered the passenger window and called out, ‘Are you going?’
The woman beneath the umbrella looked over and smiled. ‘Yes, in a minute. Do you want my space?’
‘Please, you’re a lifesaver.’ Reversing further to allow enough space for the SUV to pull out, Alex waited for the woman to lower the umbrella, duck into the car and finally drive away.
‘Someone up there must be smiling down on us today,’ Alex mused at Carol-Anne’s reflection; although whoever it was, they could have done something about the weather; arriving looking like a drowned rat wouldn’t help her nail that first impression.
With the SUV finally clear of the space, Alex manoeuvred into it, and killed the engine. ‘Right, that’s the first task complete, now to get a ticket …’ Her words trailed off, as she scanned the car park for the ticket machine, eventually spotting the bright orange machine back over by the entrance. It seemed so far to have to carry Carol-Anne in such horrible weather. There seemed no let-up in the rain sweeping wildly across the car park.
Deciding there was only really one option that would save time and keep Carol-Anne dry, she swivelled round in her seat. ‘Do you think you could be super good for Mummy? I need to go and buy a ticket from that machine over there,’ she said, pointing to where she meant. ‘If I lock the doors, do you think you could sit here really quietly while I go and get it? You’ll have to sit perfectly still so you don’t trigger the alarm. Can you do that for Mummy?’
Carol-Anne blinked back, oblivious to what Alex had asked.
‘No, I can’t do that,’ Alex answered for herself biting her nail. ‘I’ll just have to get you out and bring you with me. It was a stupid idea.’
Turning back, she checked the handbrake was on and ran through the checklist in her mind, before snatching up her handbag from the front seat and reaching for the door handle. But as she prised the door open, a strong gust forced it closed again.
‘Oh, this is just crazy! Does the weather not realize I have a really important interview in twenty – no, correction, eighteen – minutes?’
Her phone bleeped, and the display showed that Ray had sent her a good luck message. He knew how much this opportunity meant to her, and he was doing his best to be supportive, even if he didn’t agree that her returning to work was the best thing for them at this point.
Staring at Carol-Anne’s reflection in the mirror again, she reconsidered her options, before biting the bullet. Removing her purse, she dropped the handbag on the passenger seat, forced her door open and darted into the rain, remote locking the car as she sprinted through the puddles, cursing as the water splashed against her suit trousers.
Was it too late to phone and let them know she was running late? Would they judge her as a poor time-keeper? She’d always been so punctual when she’d worked before giving birth. Ever since Carol-Anne had arrived, she’d found getting anything done on time a struggle. It wasn’t that she’d suddenly become disorganized overnight, there just always seemed to be some kind of hurdle she’d failed to envisage. Like Carol-Anne soiling her nappy the moment they’d got in the car this afternoon, and the mad dash back into the house to change her.
Blinking against the rain, she shielded her eyes as she stared back at her small grey hatchback, tempted to run back and check that none of the hideous outcomes her paranoid mind was picturing had befallen her daughter. And as if to heighten her paranoia, the car’s alarm sounded in a flurry of orange light. Carol-Anne would be terrified by the sudden cacophony. Splashing back a few steps, she killed the alarm with the remote.
Scanning the full car park, she saw there wasn’t a soul in sight, and with time against her, she hurried back to the machine, opening her purse and fishing for change. The rain continued to blind her as she struggled to read the sign and calculate how much she needed, finally dropping three £1 coins into the slot and pressing the green button, forcing herself to look back at the car every few seconds. The orange machine finally whirred and spat out her parking ticket. Snatching it up, she charged back towards the car, relieved to get back in, and take a moment to catch her breath.
‘It is such a minging day,’ she said, finally opening her eyes and wiping rain from her face.
Looking up at the rear-view mirror, the breath caught in her throat.
Spinning around, she stared at the empty child seat, unwilling to believe her own eyes.
