Brooklyn Page 0,20
night.
“What did you have for dinner?” Georgina asked as she set about moving the trunk into the bathroom.
“I think it was mutton.”
“And peas, plenty of peas. And how do you feel?”
“I have never felt worse. Did I leave a big mess in the corridor?”
“Yes, but the whole ship’s a mess. Even first class is a mess. They’ll start the cleaning there and it’ll be hours before they make it down here. Why did you eat such a big dinner?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Did you not hear them saying it when we were coming on board? It’s the worst storm in years. It’s always bad, especially down here, but this one is terrible. Just drink water, nothing else, no solids. It’ll do wonders for your figure.”
“I’m sorry about the smell.”
“They’ll come and clean it all up. We’ll move the trunk again when we hear them coming and we’ll put it back when they go. I got spotted in first class and I’ve been warned to stay down here until we dock or I’ll be arrested at the other side. So I’m afraid you’ve got company. And, darling, when I vomit, you’ll know all about it. And that’s all’s going to happen for the next day or so, vomiting, plenty of it. And then I’m told we’ll be in calm waters.”
“I feel terrible,” Eilis said.
“It’s called seasickness, duck, and it turns you green.”
“Do I look terrible?”
“Oh, yes, and so does every person on this boat.”
As she spoke, a loud knocking came from the other cabin. Georgina went into the bathroom.
“Fuck off!” she shouted. “Can you hear me? Good! Now, fuck off!”
Eilis stood behind her in her nightdress and her bare feet. She was laughing.
“I need to go to the toilet now,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Later in the day they came with buckets of water filled with disinfectant and they washed the floors of the corridors and the rooms. They took away the sheets and blankets that had been soiled and brought new ones and fresh towels. Georgina, who had been watching out for them, pushed the trunk back to its place inside the door. When the neighbours, two elderly American ladies, whom Eilis now saw for the first time, complained to the cleaners that the bathroom had been locked, the cleaners shrugged and carried on working. The second they had gone, Georgina and Eilis edged the trunk back into the bathroom before their neighbours got a chance to block the door from the other side. When they banged on both the bathroom door and the door of the cabin, Eilis and Georgina laughed.
“They missed their chance. That will teach them now!” Georgina said.
She went to the dining room and came back with two jugs of water.
“They have only one waiter,” she said, “so you can take what you like. This is your ration for tonight. Eat nothing and drink plenty, that’s the key. It won’t stop you being sick, but it won’t be as bad.”
“It feels as if the boat is being pushed back all the time,” Eilis said.
“From down here it always feels like that,” Georgina replied. “But stay still and save your breath and vomit to your heart’s content when you feel like it and you’ll be a new woman tomorrow.”
“You sound like you have been on this boat thousands of times.”
“I have,” Georgina said. “I go home once a year to see my mam. It’s a lot of suffering for a week. By the time I’ve recovered I have to go back. But I love seeing them all. We’re not getting any younger, any of us, so it’s nice to spend a week together.”
After another night of constant retching, Eilis was exhausted; the liner seemed to hammer against the water. But then the sea became calm. Georgina, who moved regularly up and down the corridor, met the couple in the adjoining cabin and made an agreement with them that neither side would prevent the other from using the bathroom, but they would instead attempt to share it in a spirit of harmony now that the storms were over. She moved her trunk out of the bathroom and warned Eilis, who admitted to being hungry, not to eat anything at all, no matter how hungry she was, but to drink plenty of water and try not to fall asleep during the day, despite the overwhelming temptation to do so. If she could sleep a full night, Georgina said, she would feel much better.
Eilis could not believe she had four