“Come on, hurry up! Your gonna be late. Come on get you butt in the car now!”

Shane ushered the 6 year old boy out the door while tie to straighten
his tie. No coffee, a crying two year old , Carmen vomiting, sleeping
in (thankfully Alice phoned waking her up), lost homework and it was
only quarter to eight. It was no wonder Shane was stressed. As she
pulled out of the drive way her phone began to ring, she flipped it
open. “Hello”

“Hey Shane it’s Dave, we got a bit of a problem”

“What?”

“Um well are you OK? You seem a little tense”

“Top of the world thanks, now what’s the problem?”

“We’ve got no water”

“No water?”

“Yeah, the ***** digging round the corner hit a pipe, they say they won’t have it fixed until lunch time. What do I do?”

“Fu..” Shane stared at the boy in the seat next to her
and whispered “sorry” before continuing her phone conversation “unless
you know where we can get a big tank of water cancel all the morning
appointments, apologise for the inconvenience and get them all
rescheduled for as soon as possible.”

“Will do boss, what time will you be in at?”

“I’m gonna be late, I’m late taking Cory to school, I got
to drop off Neil, see an estate agent then an old friend is coming to
town so I’ll probably meet up with her, damn Dave I’m not sure if I’ll
make it in today. What time’s my first appointment?”

“Two, it’s you only one today but don’t worry about it cause Jesse is free. Why are you dropping off Neil? Is Carmen alright?”

“Morning sickness. I gotta go”

“Bye”

Shane closed her phone, put it on the dash and pulled
over near the black metal gate, she got out the car and went round to
the other door. She opened the door and Cory got out. “Be good” she
said as she kissed his forehead as he ran off through the gates. Shane
jogged back round the car and got in. She looked into the back, Neil
had become started to stir again. She put the car in gear.

__________________________________________________________________________________

After hurriedly leaving Neil with Carmen’s mother Shane
drove through town going somewhat faster than she should be as she had
probably already missed her scheduled time with estate agent. She hoped
the estate agent would be able to make time to see her, Carmen was
already anxious about moving house without her making things worse by
not getting the contract signed on time. Shane looked in her mirror,
“Oh brilliant just what my day needs” she spoke aloud as she pulled
over and rolled down the car window.

“Ma’am do you know how fast you where going?”

“No, sorry, I’m really just having one of those days” Shane looked up at him, staring intentionally with puppy eyes.

“I’m sorry ma’am but you were going almost 20 miles an
hour over the limit. I’ve got no choice but o give you a ticket, can I
see you licence please?”

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Thankfully the estate agent had managed to make time for
her-even through she was over an hour late thanks to that cop- and now
Shane was driving across town again, through this time considerably
slower Alice had phoned telling her she was called into work to cover
the 20 till 3 show and she had dropped Bette off at the planet, which
was where Shane was heading now.

Shane parked her car and went inside the planet, ordered
a coffee stronger than her regular (which the waiter had told her could
be verging on a lethal dose of caffeine) then looked around for Bette.
She spotted her, seated near the back, focussed on a laptop. Shane made
her way over to Bette’s table, she could feel her heart pound in her
throat. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous, it was only Bette.

“Hey stranger” Bette looked up from her screen, leapt up
from her sea and hugged Shane so tight Shane felt as if she might pass
out. “It’s so great to see you, how are you? I haven’t seen you since
since”

Bette let go her Shane, took a step back, the joy on her face washed away by a look of pain. “Since Tina’s funeral”