Chapter 22: Return to Eire

Norm wasn’t sure just when he started feeling that actually he was going to make it back to Sligo. He was nervous all the way from the train to the check in desk and through airport security. There were MCF officers patrolling the departure hall. Their body protectors were enough to disguise any womanly charms that they might have, even if New Order’s Respect Agenda decreed such speculations were off limits.

Once through passport control the “women only” and “men only when accompanied” signs disappeared and Norm suddenly felt more comfortable.

There were women with leashed men in the departure lounge but they were the exception. Mostly where couples were travelling together the man was tagging along, obviously waiting on whatever their woman wanted. A couple were sitting on the chairs across the aisle from Norm. The woman leant over and said something to the man and without a reply he scuttled off towards one of the shops in the departure lounge, returning moments later with a magazine for the woman. There were even a few unaccompanied men like himself. Presumably they were others travelling on foreign passports although, Norm thought, probably theirs were genuine.

Only at one point did he start to feel nervous again. Two Border Force officers, their uniforms identical to MCF officers apart from their pale blue epaulettes, came striding purposefully across the lounge. Whatever they were intent on it didn’t include Norm, he was glad to realise. The two, chatting together, disappeared into one of the rooms off the lounge marked “Airport Personnel Only”.

“Passengers travelling on Ryan Air flight 204 to Dublin are asked to board through Gate 17,” the tannoy announced and Norm folded his newspaper as casually as he could, got to his feet and walked as slowly as he could towards the gate.

His sense of relief increased as he got to the plane to see a smiling flight attendant welcoming him. He was suddenly aware that almost every woman he had seen over the last few days had seemed to be scowling at him personally. Fuck, Norm thought, they’ve go what they wanted, they’re running the place, at least they could look like they are happy about it.

He sat down, happy to have a window seat, but the flight was busy and soon two women arrived to take the seats alongside him. They looked to be business types, in their mid-twenties, conservative tailored suits, off on some sales trip or other, Norm supposed. On any other occasion he’d have been pleased at the prospect of being in a confined space wedged up against two attractive girls, but right now, the last thing he wanted was to be drawn into conversation or to say something inadvertent that might draw attention to himself. He stared resolutely out of the window, so much so that the flight attendant had to ask him twice to fasten his seat belt before he realised she was talking to him.