One Hundred Names (Special Edition)

appreciate you coming in to us today. And here is the thing,’ he said, placing the palms of his hands down flat on the surface of the table. His fingers were sweaty and made a sticky sound each time he lifted them from the table, which he did to emphasise certain words. ‘You are a past student of ours, which we appreciate greatly, and so that’s why I told Triona to ask you in, so I could see you myself.’ He moved his fingers and they made that sticky noise. ‘And you have gone on to work in the field you studied, which we admire greatly and are most proud of.’ He cleared his throat. ‘However, under the current circumstances,
your
current circumstances …’ They were the only words Kitty needed to hear to understand where this was going, and the rest disappeared before it reached her head apart from the memorable: ‘The students are studying your case in Media Law and we feel this would be a conflict of interest and very uncomfortable for you.’
    She would have preferred to have heard it over the phone. She had spent time getting dressed up, doing her make-up and hair, wearing shoes that cut off her circulation, and was now being smiled at patronisingly. At least with the phone she wouldn’t have had to cycle home with tears streaming down her face. The one thing she could be grateful for was Sally’s predicted torrential rain, which suddenly fell as she made her way through the miserable dark night.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
    Kitty couldn’t sleep the night before Birdie’s excursion. She couldn’t even close her eyes. She had pushed the humiliation of the job interview to the back of her mind, to be dealt with at another time on another day when she had the resources, and right now her mind was on the story, on the people and the trip. She felt nervous. Excited tingles rippled through her stomach, and then the all-too-familiar negative thoughts would immediately follow. What if she had made a mistake in throwing them all together? What if her entire plan of action regarding the angle she was taking was wrong? She felt an overwhelming duty to Constance, and also to Bob, to get it right. Her desire to please Pete no longer existed. He would have to employ some of Constance’s belief and spirit and trust that his writer knew what she was doing. The thing was that she
felt
that she knew what she was doing; she was back to following her instincts instead of reacting to somebody else’s. That outcome alone from this entire process was enough to celebrate. She had found the confidence to listen to herself again, she was simply worried that her instincts were wrong, that this trip would be a disaster.
    As she lay in bed looking at the apartment bathed in blue moonlight she began to think about having to leave it. She had lived there alone for five years, and for four months with Glen. She loved her apartment, was so fond of the space and didn’t want to leave it. She had been lucky to find it, cheeky to threaten her landlord into giving it to her cheaper and now her dastardly ways had come back to haunt her. She was going to be out on her ear in less than a fortnight. Wide awake at the thought of her uncertain future, she threw off the bedcovers and immediately began packing, afraid about the impending trip and afraid to be moving on. By three thirty her clothes were all in suitcases; by 4 a.m. she was fast asleep dreaming of her adventure with six of the one hundred names.
    The plan was for Kitty to collect Birdie from the nursing home in a taxi, where the battle-axe had been informed she would be taking Birdie away to stay overnight with her family. In the meantime, she saw the Oldtown Pistols return right on cue, victorious from their win against the Balbriggan Eagles. While on duty, Molly had arranged for the bus to be serviced, concocting a lie about hearing it make a funny noise and that a ‘Pistol’ had reported a funny smell and noise. This was taken seriously and the nurses had agreed to Molly’s arrangements of local man Billy Meaghar to take the bus for a check-up, with strict instructions that it be returned for the Pink Ladies’ bridge night the following evening. For an extra fifty euro Billy had agreed that Molly could take the bus and have it back on time for him to return it to the nursing home the following day.
    So far so good.
    Birdie and Kitty waited anxiously in the Oldtown café for Molly to arrive with the bus, both waiting for their plan to be overthrown by the battle-axe in