A Writer's Wonderland [PDF] - University of Portsmouth

She would often wonder at how things had escalated between them. They had gone
from love, to mutual likeness, to nothing. Absolutely nothing. Now, all she enjoyed was reading
Women’s Weekly and sighing over the silk stockings and feather hats. The best she could do
nowadays was fake seamed tights by drawing a line up her leg with cheap kohl, even though it
was just to go down to the seedy pub at the end of the road. There she would have drowned her
sorrows but she couldn’t even afford to do that.
Week after week Earl did not find a job and Doreen had started doubting that he ever
would, until now. She did, in fact, think he would get the job for he had a knack for selling
things door to door, which was not an easy thing to do. Doreen had simply said what she’d said
to inspire him to get off his bony arse. Anything she said now he seemed to go against and
Doreen had soon learned to stop resenting it and start using it to her advantage. That’s how little
she cared.
So the next day Earl walked with a determined stride down to Barker and Co, a
company that made and sold anything from clogs to toys to kitchen appliances, as long as they
were wooden. The building was formidable, as was the owner; Mr Barker. His face was as red as
the flames in the furnaces. His eyebrows, which sat dominating his face, were steely grey and
stretched from one side of his face to the other. His dark little eyes peered out from under them,
missing nothing. His neck was thick and covered with bulging veins that ran like cords down
under his collar. His voice boomed around the factory floor as he looked Earl up and down.
Earl was quickly put on a trail job, working the streets early mornings and late evenings,
so Earl went home happy for the first time in a long time. However, it was short lived. Doreen
was not happy with this arrangement, and she didn’t tell Earl the particular reason why she
spent the entire evening glaring at him from across the counter, before grabbing her shabby
coat and marching off stating she was going to work.
Earl tossed and turning that night, confused and angry. Sleep would not come as his
thoughts returned again and again to Doreen and her reaction. She should have been happy. He
had a job and wages, he was back on track, he would be able to make friends again. Doreen
would be able to come again. Everything would be as they used to be. There would be no more
sitting around. No more whining from Doreen. This was the job that would save their marriage
- what was left of their marriage. He couldn’t wait to start; he had a reason to wake up in the
mornings.
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