sinister

The meeting

Grief. Grieving is a really personal and isolating experience. Nobody deals with grief in the same way. It is a very individual experience. Sorscha personally wanted to be alone. She had spent the past few weeks reminiscing on the memories she had with her beautiful Clodagh. She didn't want visitors, she just wanted to be alone.

Since it had now been a few weeks since the accident, Sorscha was expected to come back to working at the nursery. However, before she was allowed to be back she needed to attend a meeting with all the managers and board members. This was protocol to ensure they were fit to be caring for the children. It was very important to ensure their safety.

There are three managers Marjorie, Reece and Janice. Marjorie is the manager of the nursery Sorscha works at, Reece is the manager of the sister nursery and Janice is the manager of the third nursery. The board members are the owner Roger, his girlfriend Siobhan, Autumn the deputy manager of Marjorie's nursery and Mia an ex manager of the sister nursery.

Sorscha knew this was protocol but she had so much anxiety about this meeting. When she arrived at the nursery she saw Marjorie waiting outside for her. “You alright my love? I wanted to make sure you were ready before we go inside.” She said comfortingly. “As ready as I'll ever be” Sorscha sighed back.

Marjorie led her to the meeting room, everyone was already sitting around the large conference table. At the head of the table was Roger, wearing his usual crinkled shirt. On either side of Roger were Siobhan and Janice. Siobhan was staring off into the distance, it almost looked like she didn't want to be there. Janice however had her eyes fixated on Sorscha from the moment she walked into the room. It almost looked like she was sympathetic.

There was then an empty seat next to both Siobhan and Janice. Nobody wanted to sit directly next to them. The seats after that had Reece and Autumn. They were sitting opposite each other so they could give each other looks every time their father talked. Mia was sitting beside Autumn, she had to come back from holiday for this so she wanted to be as far away from Roger as possible. Marjorie sat down beside Reece and Sorscha sat at the other end of the table so she was directly facing Roger. She wasn't intimidated by the man sitting at the opposite end of the table, she just thought he was a loser.

Roger asked Sorscha all the regular protocol questions. It was long but it was necessary for the safety of the children. On particularly hard questions that involved Sorscha having to talk about her wife Marjorie would reach her hand out to her under the table for her to hold. Marjorie cared so much about Sorscha so it was really hard to watch her struggling to talk. She wanted to provide Sorscha any comfort she could. The whole meeting Mia had been saying things to push people's buttons, especially Roger. She hated him and she would do anything to make his life harder.

As the meeting drew to a close, Roger turned and apologised to Janice “I'm sorry this took so long Jan, it would look really bad for the business if a kid got hurt.” Then he stood up, beckoned Siobhan to do the same and they both left the room. Janice also stood up. Before she left the room, she turned to Sorscha and said still in her sweet tone “Next time you need to grieve, please don't take as long. You made everyone have to work overtime.” She then strolled out of the meeting room, leaving Sorscha shocked and confused at what she had just heard.

Mia was repulsed that those words could ever leave Janice's mouth. Autumn and Reece immediately turned to Sorscha. They couldn't believe what they had just heard leave Janice's mouth. Autumn got that glint in her eye and tried to get up and follow after Janice but Reece stopped her. “That won't fix anything, just leave it Aut.”

Autumn knew he was right so she turned to ask if Sorscha was okay. She had been there with her when Clodagh was pronounced dead. She knew how hard this was for her. Marjorie also turned to her “Are you okay my darling?” Sorscha choked back any emotion she had, “Yeah of course, I'm grand.” She wasn't grand. “Don't let that daft cow get to you!” Marjorie said as she rubbed her hand.

Sorscha was trying to ignore what Janice had said to her but she couldn't. It was eating her up inside. She couldn't wait to get home. She didn't have to act strong there, she could cry.