Never Again

Rain! It had rained every day since she’d moved into her Manchester basement flat, and Erin was fed up. There was little light in her new home on any given day, but dark rain clouds meant it was gloomier than ever.

She shook her head; she wasn’t going to let herself mope. This was a million miles from her family home, a converted farmhouse in the rolling hills of the Cotswolds. But it rained there too. Yet when she looked out of her bedroom window there, she over looked acres of cultivated gardens. Here, the lounge window looked on to the concrete steps that led down from street level and the door to the remainder of the house. The small courtyard below the pavement was gloomy, though a few days earlier, after moving in, she’d bought several potted plants and solar lights to cheer up the area.

Unfortunately the lights, in the absence of sunlight were redundant, and the plants were drowning in pots of saturated mud.

The rest of the rented apartment was far also from desirable. The kitchen was little more than a windowless shoebox to the right of the single reception room, the rear of which opened onto an equally gloomy courtyard that served as a garden, the bedroom, painted a hideous lime green was also barely passable. And the bathroom...

Erin was glad her parents hadn’t seen the place. They’d be mortified. But until her divorce a few weeks earlier, they’d done nothing but bail her out and financially support her. This move to the other end of the country was her attempt to redefine her independence, get back on her feet again. At thirty one she needed to get things back into perspective. Michelle her best friend, and her husband Dave had moved the belongings that she’d salvaged from the destruction of her marital home to this new place, and helped her paint her bedroom to a more palatable colour described as biscuit. It had taken two hours to make the bathroom and kitchen liveable, but it was still a hovel.

Looking across the room she smiled at Barney, stretched out on his own sofa. A rescue dog, bought in an attempt to save her crumbling marriage, he was the real gem she had fought to keep in the acrimonious divorce. A five year old Great Dane, beautiful, regal and extremely funny, he’d taken the move from her parents in her stride, but hadn’t had a proper walk in two days as he wasn’t partial to the rain. And if eleven stone of dog didn’t want to walk, it didn’t! She didn’t like leaving him much, so they’d both been under house arrest all weekend.

Tomorrow she started her new job, she had taken a post in a specialist sporting injuries clinic where she would be one of the senior physiotherapists. It was a rehab unit with a gym, elite athletes as clients, and some of the best sports injuries surgeons in its charge.  She was looking forward to starting more than anything, especially after this weekend of being stuck within the four walls of this mangy flat. In London, during her married life she’d worked at a hosiptal, and it had been more depressing most days than not, and as Max had become more distant, more critical, she’d started spending more time working at a private clinic, evenings, weekends, and it was that experience that had got her this job.

When she woke the next morning the merest hint of sun fought to shine through the lighter than previous cloud. A quick jog around the block with Barney on his lead was as good as it got. After a shower, she fed him.

                “I promise you, you’ll get a decent workout tonight, ok? We’ll go to the park that we saw yesterday. You’ll love it. Now sleep today all ready. Ok?”

Barney moved his head to one side as he looked at her, and she knew in her heart that he understood every word, despite what people told her.

As she headed for the door, in her new uniform, Barney snorted, then took himself to the two seater sofa he’d made his own and climbed onto it. People thought that big dogs ate a lot and needed tons of exercise, but nothing was further from the truth, Barney’s eyes were closed before she’d shut the door behind her. Laughing she made for her rundown car. Another thing sacrificed in the divorce! Her BMW four wheel drive had been traded for a twenty year old people carrier. She’d had to take something large enough to fit him in the rear, but with her limited budget it wasn’t pretty, she drove everywhere with her fingers crossed.