Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín Read Free Book Online Page A

room for the two of them. Eilis saw that the upturned trunk was almost blocking the door.
    "You're on the top bunk. Number one means bottom bunk and that's on my ticket," the woman said. "So move. My name is Georgina."
    Eilis did not check her own ticket but instead introduced herself.
    "This is the smallest room," Georgina said, "you couldn't keep a cat in here, let alone swing one."
    Eilis had to stop herself from laughing, and she wished Rose were close by so she could tell her that she was on the verge of asking Georgina if she were going all the way to New York or if she planned to get off somewhere on the journey.
    "I need a fag but they won't let us smoke down here," Georgina said.
    Eilis began to climb up the little ladder to the top bunk.
    "Never again," Georgina said. "Never again."
    Eilis could not resist. "Never again such a big trunk or never again going to America?"
    "Never again in third class. Never again the trunk. Never again going home to Liverpool. Just never again. Does that answer your question?"
    "But you like the bottom bunk?" Eilis asked.
    "Yes, I do. Now, you're Irish so come and have a cigarette with me."
    "I'm sorry. I don't smoke."
    "Just my luck. No bad habits."
    Georgina slowly made her way out of the room by edging around the trunk.
    Later, when the engine of the ship, which seemed remarkably close to their berth, began to fire up and a large hooting whistle started to blow at regular intervals, Georgina returned to the room to fetch her coat and, having brushed her hair in the bathroom, invited Eilis to come on deck with her and see the lights of Liverpool as they departed.
    "We could meet someone we like," she said, "who could invite us to the first-class lounge."
    Eilis found her coat and scarf and followed her, inching with difficulty past the trunk. She could not understand how Georgina had managed to get it down the stairs. It was only when they were standing on deck in the dwindling evening light that she was able to get a good look at the woman with whom she was sharing the berth. Georgina, she thought, was anything between thirty and forty, although she could have been more. Her hair was a bright blond, and her hairstyle was like a film star's. She moved with confidence, and when she lit a cigarette and pulled on it, the way she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes and released the smoke from her nose made her seem immensely poised and glamorous.
    "Look at them," she said, pointing to a group of people standing on the other side of a barrier, who were also watching the city as it grew smaller. "They're the first-class passengers. They get the best view. But I know a way around. Come on with me."
    "I'm all right here," Eilis said. "There'll be no view in a minute anyway."
    Georgina turned and looked at her and shrugged. "Suit yourself. But, by the look of it and from what I've heard, it's going to be one of those nights, one of the worst. The steward who carried my trunk down said it was going to be one of those nights."
    It grew dark quickly and windy on deck. Eilis found the third-class dining room and sat alone as a single waiter set the tables around her, eventually noticing her and bringing her first, without even showing her a menu, a bowl of oxtail soup, followed by what she thought was boiled mutton in gravy with potatoes and peas. As she ate she looked around but saw no sign of Georgina and was surprised at the number of empty tables. She wondered if most of the cabins were first class and second class, and if third class was just the small number of people she saw now in the dining room, or had seen on deck. She thought this was unlikely, and asked herself where the rest of them were, or how they were going to eat.
    By the time the waiter brought her jelly and custard, there was no one else in the dining room. She thought that Georgina, since there was no other restaurant in third class, must have slipped into first or second but she did not think it could be easily done.