Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting

Martha reads Iona’s address off a book the newsagent uses to make deliveries, and the train gang finds her house. David rings the bell, and they hear Lulu barking. Piers climbs over the gate to look in the back.

Iona is hiding from her friends, but when she sees Piers looking through the window, she lets him in. He tells her he lost his job three months ago and kept commuting because he was ashamed. Her friends admire the house, especially a picture of young Iona and Bea dancing in the Folies Bergère. Emmie thought Iona had been in the Royal Shakespeare Company, but Iona and Bea were burlesque dancers, which is how they met.

Iona serves tea as her friends look at pictures from her It Girl days. Iona admits she was humiliated by what happened at work, saying, “I’m young. I’m only fifty-seven. I’m in my prime” (220). Now she feels irrelevant and doesn’t know what to do with herself. Iona asks what everyone has been up to and doesn’t believe they need her help to sort their problems out. Piers asks where Bea is.

Iona reveals that Bea was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s seven years ago. She is now in a care home, and Iona needed her job to pay the fees. Iona shows the others Bea’s garden, and Sanjay apologizes for what he said. He reveals what’s troubling him, and Iona suggests his anxiety is related to his empathy. She suggests he look for a counselor or support group at work.

Piers asks Iona to be his therapist. She says she lacks qualifications, besides being “an incurably meddling ex-socialite” (230). However, she agrees he can visit twice a week and bring her fresh flowers.

Iona feels different from the “useless, lonely old woman” (232) she saw in the mirror that morning. Seeing her friends has revitalized her. Recognizing that Martha needs a parental figure, Iona invites her to do homework at her house, then practice her lines for the play. Iona sends Emmie a message on Instagram and thinks of Bea as she goes to sleep.

At a school assembly, Martha rehearses lines under her breath. She has a new set of friends in the cast from the play, and her grades are improving. The principal introduces Kevin Sanders, who will be helping in the math department. Martha recognizes Piers. He offers tutoring at lunchtime, and Martha confronts him. Piers admits he changed his name from Kevin to Piers to escape memories of his rough childhood. Martha warns him she won’t be able to act friendly with him in front of her friends.

17:30 Waterloo to Surbiton

Piers likes his new teaching position. At his stop, he buys dinner, a bottle of wine, and a bouquet of white roses for Candida. Over dinner, he thanks Candida for standing by him. She informs him she is leaving him for the man she has been having an affair with. Piers always felt Candida was too good for him.

19:35 Hampton Court to Wimbledon

Iona bathes Lulu and thinks about how much better Piers seems during their weekly sessions. David calls and invites her to his home. Iona brings the white roses Piers gave her. David, who is a solicitor, reports that things are improving with his wife, Olivia. Iona resents a bit that David, though older than her, is still taken seriously in his profession.

David introduces a colleague, Deborah, who interviews Iona and believes she can convince Iona’s magazine to offer her a settlement for forcing her resignation. As she recounts all the subtle slurs and slights about her age, Iona feels a weight lifted: “It was, she saw, more subtle and insidious than the bullying Martha had to contend with, but no less damaging” (254).

08:08 Thames Ditton to Waterloo

Emmie is both hurt and relieved that Sanjay is avoiding her. She wishes she could talk to someone about her fear that her world is shrinking until “all it contained was her and Toby” (255). That day at the café, she’d been waiting for Sanjay when Toby called to her from his car, parked across the street. He’d followed her and insisted she come home. Emmie thought his jealousy should be flattering, but she isn’t sure of the difference between concern and control. She approaches Sanjay and asks to sit by him.

08:19 New Malden to Waterloo

Emmie tries to apologize for abandoning Sanjay that day, saying her fiancé was a bit upset. When she describes Toby’s actions, Sanjay warns Emmie that he has seen many women come into the ER with injuries from domestic abuse by jealous partners. He cautions her to know Toby very well before she marries him.

Emmie, thinking over Sanjay’s words, recalls how Toby has begun to control her money and what she wears. He keeps trying to persuade her to quit her job. She sees Iona’s message on Instagram, with Iona’s home address. Toby leaves for the evening, and Emmie goes into his study to look around. In a locked drawer, she finds his old cell phone and sees that he used it to send the harassing messages from her “friend.” Then she finds the wallet she thought she lost on the Tube two years ago, when Toby rushed in to rescue her. She realizes he has been isolating her, making her dependent on him, and cutting off her escape routes. She places her ring on the desk, takes her wallet, packs a suitcase, and leaves.