The wrong suitcase

Source: an original fiction extract.

The suitcase was blue, which was the first reason Martin did not notice. It had a broken zip on its outer pocket, which was the second. He pulled it from the coach's luggage compartment and carried it through the station with the exhausted certainty of a man who had travelled all night. At home, he set it beside the sofa and went to make tea. Only when he opened it did he discover a pair of red dancing shoes. They lay on top of a folded black dress, pointing in opposite directions.

He stared at them, then looked for his own name on the handle. The tag said M. Harris. His tag said M. Harwood, though apparently that distinction had not mattered to him at six in the morning. Under the shoes was a programme for a dance competition. Martin closed the case without looking further. He called the coach office, which had not yet opened, then sat beside the telephone. His own suitcase contained work shirts and a present for his niece. The present was a small wooden horse. He hoped whoever opened it would understand that it was not his.

At nine, the office answered. Someone else had already reported the mistake. A woman called Miriam was waiting at a hotel across town, due at the competition by eleven. Martin offered to bring the case immediately. He put on the shoes he had just taken off and left his tea unfinished. On the bus, the blue case occupied the space between his knees like a reproachful passenger. He kept one hand around its handle. Every stop seemed to require someone with a complicated ticket, an uncertain destination or a need to discuss the weather with the driver.

Miriam was waiting in the hotel doorway wearing trainers beneath a long coat. She held his suitcase and a paper bag. Martin began apologising before he reached her. She said she had almost made the same mistake herself because the cases were so alike. Then she gave him the bag: a pastry from the hotel breakfast. He had sounded tired on the telephone, she said. He tried to refuse it, but she was already opening her case to check the shoes. Seeing them, she grinned with an expression so relieved that he stopped explaining how sorry he was.

They exchanged luggage and went in opposite directions. At the bus stop, Martin ate the pastry carefully over its bag. The morning no longer felt like something he had to repair before it could begin. When he reached home, he tied a strip of bright cloth around his suitcase handle. He took out the wooden horse and checked that its painted ears had survived. Later his niece asked why the present smelled faintly of coffee. He told her it had been to a hotel before coming to her. She wanted the entire story, including the shoes.

Consider the whole source. Analyse how the writer structures the text to develop Martin’s response to his mistake. Support your explanation with references to the source.