Who is Clancy Farquhar?

Claudette looked at her watch and tutted. Her bus was due fourteen minutes ago. The journey takes twenty-five minutes to get her to the town centre, and then she has another five minute walk to the surgery. By her reckoning, she was now forty minutes late for work.

As she worked flexible hours, this wasn’t such a problem, although she was the only receptionist working today, and needed to be at the surgery in time for the first appointment. Wednesdays were usually quieter for some reason, but there was always a rush first thing. Owen, the dentist, hated the fact that the receptionists worked flexible hours, and today would have given him an ideal reason to change the working arrangements. It was his surgery, and he had the final say in things. All three receptionists were surprised when he agreed that they could work flexible hours, but he did stress that he needed the early mornings, and evenings covered.

Today, the plan was for Claudette to cover the other two, work longer hours in fact, and through her lunch, and then the others would do the same for her. A way of them getting some extra time off.

Today, things weren’t going according to the plan.

Claudette looked at her watch, and tutted again. The bus was nowhere in site, and the electronic signpost above the seat where she was sitting read ‘Due 15 minutes ago’, and once more Claudette tutted.

She glanced over the road, and saw one of her neighbours approaching. Claudette smiled, and said “Morning, Dan”, with the friendliest voice she could muster. She was in no mood for being friendly this morning.

Dan Abernathy was aware of Claudette’s grumpy nature, and paid no attention to her tone. He smiled, and said “Morning, Claudette. Are the buses running late again?”

Claudette tutted.

“There’s some kind of hold-up on the High Street,” Dan announced. “Roadworks or something”

It was the ‘or something’ that made Claudette smile. Internally. She knew what the ‘or something’ was. It was her bus, broken down. The one she’d missed by mere seconds earlier this morning. The one that had sped away, and left her breathless at the bus stop. She smiled at her imaginary revenge. The fact that the High Street was before the bus stop on this route, so the bus she’d missed would have gone in the opposite direction didn’t register with her. Well, until she realised how she was thinking, anyway. Then she tutted once more.

Dan stood beside Claudette at the bus stop. He was still smiling. He enjoyed the mornings, whereas Claudette didn’t. Dan’s cheerfulness made Claudette feel even more grumpy.

The sign on the bus stop now showed that the bus was due 16 minutes ago. Claudette looked at her watch again, but before she could tut, a car horn sounded on the other side of the road. It was another of Dan’s and Claudette’s neighbours. Abigail Odonwe, who also happened to be a partner in Owen’s dental surgery. She was running late too, and offered both Dan and Claudette a lift into the town centre.

They both accepted, and settled into their seats just as the bus made it’s way around the corner, with a second bus behind it. Claudette tutted once more. She said, quite loudly, “Typical.” Although she wasn’t thinking about the irony of two buses and her lift turning up at that precise moment. She was thinking about the day she had in store for her at work. The surgery manager would not be pleased that there was no receptionist or second dentist in for the morning rush. The patients wouldn’t be too pleased they had to wait later than their appointment times.And Claudette realised that they had to go a little further out of their way to drop off Dan on the other side of town.

Claudette decided there and then that today was not going to be a day for pleasantries.