1
Lorna cleaned rooms at the Wexford Hotel in Bristol. She started at seven in the morning and she finished at three.
In March the hotel cut her hours. After that her money was short by ninety pounds every month.
So she found a second job. At eight in the evening she walked across the road to St. Anne's Hospital, and she carried food to the beds until midnight.
She told nobody at the hotel. The hotel didn't like it when the cleaners worked somewhere else.
"Where do you go at night?" the woman on the desk asked her once.
"Home," Lorna said.
2
Room 402 was a long-stay guest.
His name was Peter Nolan. He came to the hotel in January, and in April he was still there.
Lorna cleaned his room every day. She knew his things better than she knew her own brother's things.
He never opened the little bottles in the bathroom. He never turned on the television. There was no warm coat in the cupboard, only two shirts and a heavy black bag.
One morning there was a paper on the table with bus times on it.
St. Anne's — 7:40, 8:10, 8:40.
Lorna looked at it for a moment. Then she put it back exactly where it was, and she went on cleaning.
3
She met him twice.
The first time he was standing by the window with his coat on.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll come back later."
"No, no. Come in." He picked up the black bag. "I'm going out."
He was older than her, maybe fifty. His face was grey and tired.
"You're here a long time," Lorna said.
"Yes."
"Work?"
Mr Nolan looked at the bag in his hand. "Work," he said.
The second time he left a note for her on the bed. Thank you for the clean towels. Nobody in that hotel ever left her a note.
4
Every evening Lorna crossed the road and worked in St. Anne's until midnight.
Every evening Peter Nolan sat in a chair on the fourth floor of St. Anne's, next to his wife.
They were in the same building for five hours, five days a week. They never saw each other.
Then, in April, the hospital moved Lorna to the fourth floor.
5
She was carrying food along the hall at nine o'clock. Room 12. Room 14. Room 16.
A man was sitting in a chair by the door of Room 16. He was asleep. His black bag was on the floor by his foot.
Lorna stopped.
She stood there for a long time and she didn't move.
Then Mr Nolan opened his eyes.
He looked at her. He looked at the food in her hands. Then he looked at the little sign on her shirt with her name on it.
"Lorna," he said. "I've never asked your name."
"No."
"I've been here every night since January." He said it very quietly. "And you?"
"Since March."
Neither of them said anything.
Inside the room a woman was sleeping. Her hair was white and her hands were very thin.
"That's my wife," Mr Nolan said. "The doctors are kind. They don't say much."
Lorna put the food down on the little table by the door.
"I finish at midnight," she said.
"I know," he said. "I finish at midnight too."
He moved his bag off the second chair.
"Sit down," he said. "Please."
And she sat down.