Homecoming Read Online Free PDF

her, respected her. If Nora forgot her purse when she went to The Nook convenience store, the owner would happily wave her away and tell her to pay another time. Megan couldn’t think of anywhere in the world where she knew people in the same way.
    The plane banked over the city, lower all the time. Like Megan’s spirits.
    It was horrible, feeling that she’d entirely messed up her life almost before it had begun. She had wanted to do everything right, to be the best she could be, to be wise and kind, and yet somehow she’d ended up in a world where it was easier to go to night clubs ‘til dawn, easier to hang around as part of some rock star’s entourage, easier to do the wrong thing. And all the while it was as if her life was a film; she was just playing a role , just pretending she was real. It felt as though one of her choices actually meant anything because tomorrow she’d wake up and be a different character.
    Except it wasn’t a film and the choices she’d made had been real. So were the consequences.
    Overnight her fairytale world had turned very real and very ugly.
    She didn’t know whether Nora or the comfort of Golden Square would solve any of that. All she knew was that she would give anything to be able to go back and start again.
    Nora Flynn saw the last client off the premises and locked the practice door with relief. The heavy curtain she pulled over the door was a sign to regulars that Golden Square Chiropody Clinic was closed for the day. It had been a long one; seven clients ending with a very difficult woman at six who wanted something done about a fungal nail infection but did it mean her nail polish would have to come off?
    ‘What?’
    ‘I don’t want my pedicure ruined, I’ve just had it done,’ the woman said.
    ‘You are kidding, aren’t you?’ said Nora.
    The woman gazed at Nora, who had poker-straight undyed grey hair and not a shred of make-up on her face.
    ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
    ‘Probably not.’
    Nora could be endlessly patient. But when the woman had finally left, moaning about her messed-up pedicure, Nora had felt like shrieking, And a plague on you too! after her. Hell was definitely other people.
    She checked her watch. Half six. Megan would be on the plane now.
    ‘Get a taxi,’ Nora had told her on the phone. ‘No point me trekking through evening traffic to the airport.’
    ‘OK,’ Megan stammered, clearly taken aback but trying not to show it.
    ‘Shall I make dinner or will you eat on the plane?’ Nora went on briskly, noting Megan’s surprise and moving on.
    ‘Don’t bother with dinner,’ Megan said, and she sounded more like the old Megan, less like the grand movie star who’d insisted fame wouldn’t change her and yet had been changed all the same.
    It would do her good to be back in Golden Square, Nora thought. Nobody would be running round after her here. There was only Nora and Nora didn’t do running around. Not with her knees. She was glad she didn’t have to cook tonight, either. Nora knew her limits and cooking was one of them. A bit of salmon in the microwave and some plain rice would do her nicely.
    The practice occupied the ground floor of the house. Normally, she’d have been sharing the space with Kevin, who was a wonderful chiropodist, but he had a week off.
    ‘Surfing,’ Kevin had said when he booked his holidays.
    ‘Whatever floats your boat,’ said Nora. ‘It’s supposed to be hard.’
    ‘Not for me,’ said Kevin, with the innocence of a child, and Nora thought he was probably right. For all Kev’s innocence, he was very competent.
    She turned off the lights and opened the door on to the stairs leading to the rest of the house. She lived on the two upper floors.
    The basement was a flat let out to a pair of girls who used to work in the bank, and now worked in a bar, making far more money in tips than they’d ever made when they were changing euros into rands and yen on the foreign exchange. The agreement was one