City Woman (35 page)

Bill had instructed her that when she got to immigration control she was to go to the big glass partition and he would throw her visa over to her. As the control booths came into view, Caroline
peered anxiously ahead of them to see if she could see Bill in the knot of people who stood behind the partition waving white visas at the arriving passengers. Her eyes scanned from right to left
and back again. What would she do if he wasn’t there, she thought in a panic. And then she saw him, a big grin on his ruddy face as he waved the precious paper at her and threw it over the
partition. A wave of relief swept over her. Bill was there; everything was fine.

Twenty minutes later as she stood waiting for her baggage to arrive, Caroline acknowledged that while she might have got to Abu Dhabi in one piece, her luggage had not. Forlornly she watched as
all the other passengers reclaimed their cases until she was the only one left. Unsure what to do, she bit her lip in anxiety. She had three big cases with clothes and enough cosmetics to last her
for the six months and not one of them was to be seen. A customs official pointed her in the direction of lost luggage and a yawning official was taking down the details of her missing bags just as
the KLM rep arrived.

‘Don’t worry about it at all,’ the young woman reassured her. ‘I’ll give you an overnight bag and an allowance and we’ll deliver your baggage to your door
most likely tomorrow. This often happens; it’s nothing.’ Feeling somewhat bereft, Caroline passed through customs with her hand luggage and met Bill at the other side of the
partition.

‘No luggage? Ah well, no doubt it will turn up tomorrow. Come on! Let’s get you home. Nell has the place all ready for you and she’ll be here for a few days to show you the
ropes. I’ve to fly to Bahrain for a couple of days on business and then I’ll be back myself.’ They walked through the airport doors. A blast of hot, humid air hit Caroline and she
inhaled the scents of this new country.

‘It’s warm, isn’t it?’ she breathed.

Bill looked at her in surprise. ‘I thought it was cool enough actually. Don’t worry – you’ll acclimatize soon enough. If you were here in the middle of summer you’d
find it hard, but it’s very pleasant now.’

It was a drive of about thirty kilometres from the airport but in the air-conditioned Mercedes it took no time and very soon they were crossing the bridge that took them from the mainland out to
the island where the capital city was situated. Soon they were driving through suburbs and then as they moved further along Airport Road, apartment blocks and high-rise buildings started to appear.
Then Bill was swinging off the main road into a residential area and Caroline could see the minarets of a huge mosque, its mosaic dome gleaming in the moonlight. He turned right and pulled up
outside an apartment block and Caroline realized that this was where she was going to live for the next six months. ‘Well, what do you think?’ Bill asked cheerfully.

Caroline gazed around her. ‘It’s certainly different, that’s for sure,’ she said with a smile, as she stepped out of the car and felt the blanket of hot air envelop her
again. Posh it wasn’t, compared to where she had lived with Richard: there were no penthouses in this apartment block. But as a dark-haired smiling girl waved at her from the first-floor
balcony, Caroline felt she was going to like it. She followed Bill up the stairs, eager to see the inside of her new home.

Thirty

A high-pitched sound woke her. She turned over and buried her head in the pillows but the noise continued. Was it someone singing? One of her brothers, at this hour of the
morning? What on earth was he up to? Caroline dragged herself back to consciousness and sat up, yawning. Bleary-eyed she reached for her bedside lamp. It wasn’t there. Comprehension dawned
and she shook her head at her stupidity. Of course she wasn’t at home: she was in Abu Dhabi and that musical wailing that was amplified across the city must be the famous call to prayer.

So that was what it sounded like! Caroline had read about the muezzins calling the faithful to prayer five times a day from the mosques, and now she was hearing it for the very first time. A
little tingle of excitement ran up her spine. Who could believe that she, timid and unadventurous Caroline Stacey Yates, was lying in a bed, in an Arab country, thousands of miles from home,
listening to the call to prayer. Only that she knew better, she would have told herself she was dreaming.

She lay back against the pillows and immersed herself in the sound. All over the Islamic world, no matter where they were or what they were doing, practising Muslims would face towards Mecca and
begin to pray. It was a bit like the Angelus really, Caroline mused, snuggling down into the bed, but the Angelus bell was nothing as exotic as this. She became aware of another sound, a low
whirring, and had to think for a moment what it was. Of course, the air-conditioning.

Nell, Bill’s secretary, whom she was replacing, and in whose guest-room she was sleeping, had laughed when Caroline had said how hot it was. ‘I’d better put the AC on,
so,’ she smiled. ‘I think it’s quite cool myself and you’ll get used to it too.’ Caroline found it strange that Bill and Nell thought the weather cool. To her, it was
like a very hot and humid summer’s night. If this was what it was like in their winter, she didn’t dare imagine the heat of the summer! Just as well she was staying only until the
spring. Otherwise, she’d never stick it, she thought, as she flung off the sheet and lay beneath the cooling breeze of the AC. Nell had actually put a duvet on the bed for her, which she
removed immediately. How on earth was the other girl going to stand the chill of home in November, with the rest of the winter to follow?

Nell was nice, Caroline thought. She had been smiling as she stood at the door waiting for them while Bill, carrying Caroline’s hand luggage, led the way up the stairs to the first-floor
apartment. A petite dark-haired girl, Nell had huge brown eyes that sparkled with good humour.

‘Welcome. Welcome.’ She had flung open the door wide and ushered Caroline in. A slightly puffed Bill followed. Caroline had walked through a tiled hall into a large sitting-room
decorated in soothing shades of cream and brown. A slight breeze ruffled the muslin curtains that covered the windows and Caroline could see exotic plants trailing along the balcony.

‘Sit. Relax,’ urged Nell as she rushed out to the kitchen and brought in a tray with tea and sandwiches. ‘I thought you’d feel like a snack so I made some club
sandwiches. I brought you this.’ She grinned at Bill handing him a can of chilled beer and a glass. ‘I thought you might need it after your exertions on the stairs, with you having a
lift in your plush pad and all.’

‘Boy, I sure do,’ Bill puffed, wiping his ruddy face with a handkerchief. ‘I’ll have to get fit. Definitely!’

‘If you came down to the Irish dancing on Tuesday nights, I’m telling you, Bill, you’d be as fit as a fiddle,’ laughed Nell, sitting down beside Caroline on the sofa.

‘Could you see me?’ snorted Bill, gulping down the cool beer. ‘Girls, I’ll love you and leave you. Caroline, I have to go to Al Ain tomorrow—’ he looked at
his watch ‘—today,’ he amended, ‘So I probably won’t see you until Friday. But Nell is going to take you to the office in the afternoon and show you around.
She’ll be here until next week so you’ll be fine.’ He put out his hand and shook hers. ‘Get a good night’s sleep.’

‘I will,’ Caroline assured him.

‘Nell, don’t keep her up yakking all night. She’ll probably have a touch of jet-lag. Don’t forget she’s been flying since early this morning.’

‘As if I would,’ exclaimed Nell indignantly.

‘As if you wouldn’t,’ declared Bill as he walked into the hall. ‘I know you when someone comes over from home.’

Nell winked at Caroline, ‘I’ll have her in bed in half an hour, O master. Good luck in Al Ain.’ She closed the door on Bill and came in and sat down by Caroline.
‘I’m dying to hear all the news from home but I’ll restrain myself until tomorrow. I know you must be knackered, especially having had to hang around because of your
luggage,’ she said sympathetically, as Caroline yawned in spite of herself.

‘It’s been a long day,’ Caroline agreed, telling Nell all about the delays at Dublin Airport and how she had made the connection only by the skin of her teeth. She rooted
through her large hold-all and handed Nell a box of handmade Lir chocolates. ‘I thought you might like these, and I’ve brought you some magazines:
U, Woman’s Way, Image
,
just so you can see what’s going on at home. I should have brought the papers, but they’re so full of bad news I just didn’t bother.’ Caroline felt like kicking herself for
not thinking that Nell might have been interested in reading about the news at home.

‘Don’t worry about it; sure I’ll be home this day next week and I’ll hear it all then. But thanks very much for the chocolates and the mags. I’m going to take them
to bed with me.’ Nell took Caroline’s empty cup and plate from her. ‘Come on; I can see you’re wall fallin’. I’ll show you your room, and you can have a shower
and get into bed. And you don’t have to worry about getting up in the morning. I’ll come home from the office around one and we can have lunch together and a good chat. Then I’ll
bring you down to introduce you gently to the circus that’s going to be your life for the next few months. How does that grab ya?’

‘That sounds fine,’ Caroline smiled back, liking this live wire and wishing that she wasn’t going home at all.

Nell had shown her to a small guest-room decorated in blues and white. It was very soothing and Caroline liked it immediately. Nell pointed to a blue-tiled bathroom across the hall.
‘I’ve got an en suite and the room is much bigger. So you can move there when I’m gone. I hope you’ll be warm enough,’ she added doubtfully. ‘There are blankets
in the top of the wardrobe if you need them.’

‘God, I’m baked,’ Caroline assured her, mightily relieved when Nell switched on the AC. She had been so glad to have that shower. Her clothes were stuck to her from the heat
and the long hours of travelling, and she stood for a good twenty minutes under the refreshing spray. Wrapped in a towelling robe that Nell had given her, Caroline had stood peering out through her
bedroom window at the strange new environment. Across the street, she could make out several small shops on the ground floor of apartment blocks. Up to her right she could see the airport road
where they had turned off. No doubt it would be much easier to get her bearings in daylight. It was hard to believe that the same crescent moon shone over Dublin city, thousands of miles away.

The neat blue KLM overnight bag caught her eye and she opened it to find a little treasure trove: nightshirt, slippers, black eyemask, four headache tablets in a little case, needle and thread
and small scissors, moisturizer, toothbrush, toothpaste, sachets of washing-powder, razor and aftershave, deodorant, shampoo, plasters, tissues, toothpicks, nail clippers, emery boards, and even a
little game of draughts. They had thought of everything. Caroline was delighted with it. It would come in very handy in the future for overnight stays and no doubt she’d have her luggage
tomorrow, if what she had seen so far of KLM’s customer service was anything to go by. Having dried her hair, she slid into bed and fell instantly asleep, to be woken a few hours later by the
muezzin’s amplified call.

After a while the keening of the muezzin ceased and Caroline drifted back to sleep, relaxed in the thought that she could have a lie-in in the morning. That would help alleviate any jet-lag she
might feel because of the four-hour time difference.

The insistent ringing of a phone woke her and she jumped out of bed half-asleep. She padded out into the hall towards the sitting-room, where the sound was coming from.

‘Hi, it’s me!’ Nell’s voice floated cheerfully down the line. ‘Sorry to have to wake you but I’ve been on to KLM and your luggage is in Cairo.’

‘I’m in Cairo!’ Caroline said groggily.

‘No, no, you’re in Abu Dhabi! Your luggage is in Cairo,’ Nell said soothingly as Caroline began to wake up properly. ‘I’m sorry I had to wake you but someone from
KLM is on the way over to get your case keys. They’ll need it for customs. And they promise they’ll have your luggage delivered by lunchtime. I’ll see you then. Make yourself at
home. Raid the fridge for breakfast and go back to bed.’

The carriage clock on the bookcase told Caroline that it was just gone nine. That meant it was five a.m. Irish time. Nell had been in the office since seven-thirty. They started work early in
these parts and Caroline realized that she too would have to get used to the habit. She was trying to decide whether to go back to bed or get up when a knock at the door announced the arrival of a
man from KLM. Giving him the keys, she closed the door, yawned widely, forbade herself to look out the curtained windows of the apartment because she knew if she saw the sun she’d never go
back to bed, poured herself a glass of fresh orange juice, drank it in two gulps and went back to her comfortable divan. Five a.m. was just not the time to get up, she decided, but she promised
herself that she would no longer compare times with home. From now on it would be Abu Dhabi time only.

When she woke again, she felt completely rested. Alert and excited, she flew to the window to get her first look at the city in daylight. Brilliant sunshine and the bluest of blue skies greeted
her and it was hard to credit that it was almost the middle of November.

Across the street, men in white thobes stood chatting outside a small supermarket. Traffic whizzed up and down the airport road further along. Another supermarket, Bashir’s grocery, was
brisk with customers. Indian and Pakistani women in their colourful saris seemed to glide in and out and the Arab women in their black abayas looked mysterious and exotic.

Nell had told her that Thursday was the start of the weekend in the Arab world and that Friday was the holy day. Most people were off work but Bill’s office was open seven days a week and
Nell sometimes worked at the weekend if they were particularly busy. She then took her two days on the Saturday and Sunday. Caroline would be doing the same.