G03 - Resolution Read Online Free PDF Page B

Maureen wrote “loan” in the box, trying to keep her writing tidy. The hardboard she was leaning on was still gritty and she felt the pen crunch through dust, pitting the back of the page. She looked up and Ella was still drawing zigzags on the dusty floor. “What does your son sell in his shops?”
    “This and that.” Ella waved her hand. “Houses, and wholesale stuff, ye know.”
    “He’s an estate agent?”
    “Aye, and other things.”
    “Well, what business address should I put in here?”
    Ella thought about it for a moment, looking at the floor. Her face contracted slowly, her lips tightened, eyes narrowed. “Park Circus Health Club, ninety-three Becci Street, Kelvingrove.”
    “I didn’t know there was a health club there,” said Maureen, writing it down.
    When she looked up again Ella was suddenly ancient. Maureen imagined her without the tracksuit, without the gold rings and the eyebrows and her glasses, and realized she must be much older than sixty. She was at least seventy. “And that’s where you clean, is it?”
    “Aye.”
    It wasn’t part of the form but Maureen was keen to know. “Why don’t ye just keep back the money from the stall?”
    Ella harrumphed. “Wouldn’t cover it.”
    “So you’re still handing over the money ye make here?”
    “I’ve kept my side of the bargain.”
    “Is he just avoiding ye, then?”
    “Nut,” said Ella, turning her mouth down at the corners. “He’s threatened me.”
    “With violence?”
    “What else would he threaten me with — a holiday?”
    Maureen dropped the board onto her lap and leaned forward. “Ella, that’s appalling,” she said seriously. “Did ye have a falling out?”
    Ella nodded quietly. “Over a foreign woman. Not even a Scottish woman,” she said, as if that made a difference to the fight-worthiness of anyone.
    “A girlfriend?”
    Ella chewed the inside of her cheek.
    “Have ye got any other kids?”
    “A daughter.”
    “Could she not talk to him for ye?”
    Ella ignored her and sat up, straightening her back and pointing at Maureen. “Ye know what? Fuck them, I’ll go to court if I need to.”
    Maureen thought back to her time working at the Place of Safety Shelters, remembered how unusual it was for family members to go all the way to court over anything, much less a small debt and a point of pride. “Up to you. Ye just need to sign this.” She held out the form but Ella shoved the hardboard back at her.
    “You do it.”
    “Well, it says here you have to sign it.” Maureen pointed to the box.
    “Oh, Christ,” said Ella, getting flustered, “you fucking do it.” She stood up and turned away, busying herself with the tapes.
    Maureen stood up behind her uncertainly. “You’ve to sign it, you’re bringing the case. I can’t sign for you.”
    Ella McGee looked at her as if she were stupid. “Aye, ye can.”
    Maureen stood up next to her. “Are ye afraid to sign it, Ella?”
    “No,” she said emphatically, patting the Phil Collins tapes into a tidy row.
    Maureen watched her turn away, looked at the back of her wrinkled neck and realized why Ella had confided in her. Ella couldn’t fill in the form herself because Ella couldn’t write. It would have been shaming to ask anyone else for help but Maureen was a newcomer to the market and Maureen didn’t count.
    “Will I sign it, then?” said Maureen.
    “Aye, you do that.”
    Maureen considered signing Ella’s name but thought it might be fraudulent. She put down her own name and address. “Um, you’ll need to write an envelope and send it to the sheriff’s office.”
    “You can do that, can’t ye?”
    They looked at each other and Maureen nodded. “Aye, no bother, I’ll do it.”
    She folded the form and went to brush past her, but Home Gran caught her by the flesh on her upper arm. “And you’ll come to the court with me, eh?” she said anxiously. “If it comes to that.”
    Maureen didn’t want to. She had more than enough psychos in her