It Won't Hurt a Bit Read Online Free PDF Page A

faster.
    My parents were taking me to Forres. ‘Dad and I want to make sure you catch that Aberdeen train,’ said Mum. ‘Now that suit fits you fine even if it is short and tight. Still, green’s your colour. Just remember not to run to catch a bus. We might even have to help you aboard at the station.’ It was said with a twinkle but I was too nervous to respond.
    The road was quiet but as we stopped at a crossroads I thought about my own. Maybe always wanting to be a nurse wasn’t enough and what if Sister Gordon was right and I wasn’t up to the mark? What would I do then? The very thought of her scolding tongue becoming a permanent feature was enough to decide that whatever happened, Grantown wasn’t forever. I’d find a ward maid’s job elsewhere.
    ‘Drat! Look, Jane, you’ve got a ladder in your stockings.’ Good old Mum. Perfect for boosting confidence, and how could she know that whilst sitting in the front and looking straight ahead? I’d counted and actually had several but at least she’d channelled my thoughts into a more immediate problem. I’d need to buy a pair in Aberdeen; was it not full of shops with wonderful bargains?
    I boarded the train and waved as it steamed away from the station. They might have shouted something but it was lost in noise, clamour and the beating of my heart. Looking back, I suddenly saw my parents looking young and carefree, enveloped in the smoke as if in a cloud. How very strange. It wouldn’t have happened with diesel.

5
A VISIT TO THE GRANITE CITY
    ‘That’s a nice suit, killer shoes though. You’ll never last a day in Aberdeen with heels that high and look at your stockings already.’ Beth was waiting at the other end and handed over a new packet as she spoke. All very well for her; being small and elf-like means there’s less to maintain.
    ‘How did you know?’
    ‘I just knew. You’re predictable in many ways and I suppose you’ve lost your comb too?’ She scrabbled in a bag almost as big as herself. ‘Here. Now come on, you’ve just enough time to change and make yourself tidy and then we’ll get a taxi. You’ll be late otherwise.’
    The station waiting room was ill lit with a mirror reflecting so many freckles in an ashen face it was surely fly spotted as well. Aberdeen was cold and so were the toilets with a searching wind reaching through the gaps under the doors and blowing in a scrap of paper.
    ‘For God’s sake put these stockings on carefully,’ Beth shouted. ‘They cost me an arm and a leg.’
    ‘Guy loves Meg,’ declared a wall scribbler.
    ‘Bully for Guy,’ I said standing on one leg, handling the stockings with care and wondering if the visiting bit of paper also had a message. Already the shoes were beginning to pinch.
    Out in the city the wind pounced on us, with the bustle of crowds and the roar of traffic overwhelming, but Beth seemed oblivious to it as she grabbed me and darted across a busy road.
    ‘Are you trying to kill me?’ I asked Beth and the shoes.
    ‘Taxi!’ Beth’s imperious gesture stopped a cab in a squeal of brakes.
    ‘Hurry up! We’re stopping the traffic. Get in!’ She shoved. The door slammed behind me.
    ‘Are you not coming with me?’ My cry was puny.
    ‘No, you’re a big girl now and I’ve classes to go to but I’ll be up later and I’ll be at the entrance. Foresterhill!’ she cried, giving the door a bang like a starting gun. The taxi shot off. Aberdeen rattled past. In my agitated state it looked as if every building was hunched into one bleak granite blur until at last, the taxi pulled up at a complex of seriously grey buildings.
    Set in their square jaws were barred windows suggesting captivity and surely if this was a hospital, the grounds would have more flowers and less tar?
    ‘I’m sorry. There’s a mistake. I didn’t want to go to a jail.’ Further along from the main building was another but smaller. Even if there was no barbed wire, it too looked like a fortress.
    The taxi