She walked to the train station to catch the DART. All of the faces she passed were wet and miserable. This happened after all. It had now been raining all morning. In the distance she heard thunder but it could have quit easily been a lorry nearby.
Near the train station she began to look for her ticket in her handbag. It wasn’t exactly a flimsy bag but there was a lot of stuff in there. She began to wonder why she couldn’t find her purse when there was sudden violent stop to her movements. A guy, thin, head shaven wearing a tracksuit and very expensive runners, ran passed and grabbed her bag. It was halfway down her arm when she realised what was happening. That momentary shock. She tried to hold onto it but he punched her square in the face.
She was knocked to the ground, her light frame carried by the force of the hit. He face hurt and she realised she was looking up to the sky. She never noticed the birds in the station fly past her sprawled frame. There was some shouting as people around her wanted to be seen to do the descent thing and apprehend the criminal but wanted to avoid a fate similar to hers.
She climbed to her feet. She was trembling now and the tall skinny man was nowhere to be seen. Obviously run off in his expensive shoes.
Once she was on her feet somebody said “you better go to the gardi misses, better to report these things” She wasn’t paying attention but nodded.
Somebody took her by the arm and led her to the police station. She hadn’t really been paying attention because the adrenalin was coursing through her system still. She looked and saw the hand on her arm was attached to a wrist and in turn to a grey suit. There was a man leading her. He looked smart, dashing almost. The suit looked expensive and the man looked Italian with his dark hair and tanned skin. He gave an air of knowingness of authority and of kindness.
They stopped outside a police station. The blue mock gas lantern with Garda Siochana and the well recognisable badge over head. The man smiled and nodded and led her into the building. The entrance was blue with old well used benches along the walls. The floor was covered in blue lino with a stain where obviously somebody had spilled coffee on the floor near the reception desk.
The man led her to a bench and let her sit down for a moment. He then went to the desk and started talking the officer on duty. She didn’t really hear much of the conversation since she was so dazed.
She started replaying over the last half hour in her head. The office, her boss, the mugging.
Tears started to roll down her cheek then and the shaking returned.
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