The spare seat

Source: an original fiction extract.

“Mina reached the coach station on Friday with a suitcase, a violin and a ticket for the last service north. Her audition was the following morning. At the counter, the attendant explained that a fault had reduced the coach's seating capacity. One passenger would have to wait until the morning. Mina put her ticket flat on the counter, as though smoothing it could make its promise stronger. Behind her, someone began asking how long the decision would take.

Outside, the coach crouched beneath the lights, its luggage doors open like untidy drawers. Exhaust spread along the platform in a thin grey veil. Every announcement broke into pieces against the concrete roof, leaving destinations without beginnings and instructions without ends. Mina held the violin case tighter. The polished handle pressed a clean, hard line into her palm, the only thing in the station that seemed entirely definite.

An older woman sat on a bench with a small overnight bag. She was reading a message, bringing the screen close, then moving it away. Mina sat at the far end of the bench and checked her own phone. Her teacher had written: Remember to breathe before the first note. She could not imagine a first note if she never reached the hall. The woman asked whether the coach had been cancelled. Mina explained. 'I see,' the woman said, and folded both hands around the phone.

The attendant came out carrying a clipboard. He asked whether anyone could travel in the morning. Mina looked at the woman, whose phone had begun to ring. She answered quietly: 'Tell him I'm coming.' Mina stood up before she had decided what she would say. The attendant looked towards her. At that moment, a man by the vending machine raised his hand. He had arranged a lift, he said. The attendant crossed something off the list. Mina sat down again, embarrassed by the force of her relief.

On the coach, the woman took the seat beside her. Neither spoke until they had left the station. Then Mina asked whether she needed to make another call. The woman shook her head and looked out at the dark fields. Mina loosened her grip on the violin case. She had not given up her place. She had not even offered it. After a while, the woman said that her brother had asked her to bring his reading glasses. Mina listened, and when the coach stopped she offered to carry the overnight bag.”

Refer only to the second paragraph. Analyse how the writer uses language to present Mina’s uncertainty at the coach station. Support your ideas with quotations from that paragraph. You could consider words and phrases, language features and techniques, and sentence forms.