The long table

Source: an original fiction extract.

At four on Friday afternoon, Iris arrived at the village hall to help prepare for a craft sale. The caretaker asked her to cover six tables with white cloths and put a numbered card at the end of each one. The cards were in a red folder beside the kettle. Iris left her bicycle beneath the porch and carried the cloths into the main room. She began with the table nearest the stage. Two stallholders were already unpacking boxes by the entrance, although the sale would not open until ten the following morning.

One of the tables was longer than the others. Its surface was marked with circles, scratches and a dark line where two sections joined. Iris pulled the cloth across it, but a corner caught on a rough patch. She asked the caretaker whether they should use a newer table instead. He ran his hand along the edge and fetched sandpaper. While he worked, he said the table had come from the old school dining room. It had been shortened once, then lengthened again when the hall began hosting winter lunches.

Iris tried to imagine all the people who had sat beside it. The two stallholders came over, one carrying a box of pottery and the other a tray of wooden birds. The woman with the birds recognised the dark join. She said she had eaten school dinners there and used to hide peas beneath the rim of her plate. The caretaker laughed. He remembered her class because they had performed a play in the hall with a cardboard castle that would not stay upright. Iris had never heard either adult speak about being a child.

When the rough patch was smooth, they laid the cloth together. It covered every mark. Iris placed a number at the end, then moved it so that it did not hide the repaired corner. She knew that made little difference; the wood was still beneath the white fabric. The potter began arranging bowls, leaving a space where the sections met because the surface dipped slightly. Nothing about the table was ideal for displaying fragile things, but he tested the bowls and said it would do if they were careful.

The next morning Iris returned with her grandmother. The hall was full of voices, and the long table carried bowls, cups and a vase of dried flowers. Nobody mentioned the school dining room. Iris found the slight dip beneath the cloth with her fingertips, then took her hand away when a customer reached for a cup. She did not need to explain its history to everyone. On the way out she saw the caretaker collecting empty boxes and asked whether he needed help putting the tables away later. He said he would be glad of another pair of hands.

Refer only to the first paragraph. Choose one answer for each item. Write the four letters in order, labelling them 1 to 4.