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The Iberian Horseshoe — A Journey

Part IV. North East

One Way Ticket Home

Steve Porter

Global Fiction

First publication: September 2007

http://badosa.com/n250-69

Josep is off to Geneva with his ticket ‘to go and return’ as he calls it. In Catalan it is anada i tornada and in Spanish ida y vuelta. I have told him that it is simply called a return ticket in English but he has forgotten.

Mary is in the station buying her ticket—ida sólo, ‘a ticket to go’ as Josep might call it. I stand in the shade until the train rolls in and I help Mary on with the bags. She forces a smile as the train pulls out and disappears round the bend, past the poplars in the cemetery, below the white light of the sun.

I walk back down the hill. Blossom is snowing from the trees on either side of the street.

The flat is suddenly a big place. No cases, no cat, no make-up or aromatherapy bottles in the bathroom—some space on the bookshelves. I hear footsteps on the stairs. Try not to think about Mary. Josep has a point. It is the English language that got it wrong. How can you return if you don’t go in the first place?