16,419.0 km to belfast
We talk on Thursdays now, her night and my Friday morning, after she's been to the leisure centre.
Yesterday she'd done some arithmetic. Or Orla had. At the rate the two of us are going, we meet in about 2047, somewhere in the Gobi Desert. Lachie checked it on his map and it's true, the line goes right through Mongolia.
"I'll be ninety-four," Bridie said. "There's no water in the Gobi, Noreen."
Then there was a long gap, long enough that I thought the line had gone.
"Come in May," she said. "The sea's lovely in May."
I asked her what lovely meant in May. She said about ten degrees.
I've booked it. Flying out on the 27th of April, back in the middle of June. Claire cried and then went straight into my cupboards to see what coats I've got, and I haven't got any.
The jacaranda's purple again. Me 499.2. Bridie 192.8.