The first suitcases

Original fiction extract.

The passengers stood around the carousel with the same careful distance between them. Nobody had agreed where to wait, but each seemed certain that the best place was the one already occupied. Over the opening in the wall, a rubber curtain hung in strips. A woman beside me held a folded coat as though she had been told not to put anything down.

The belt began with a low, private cough. Then a black case shouldered through the curtain, followed by a red one lying on its back. The empty oval became a procession of small personal mysteries. Hands rose and fell around it, practising claims which had not yet become certain. One scuffed blue bag received three hopeful looks before passing untouched. Each time the curtain parted, the whole circle leaned towards it: a garden of heads turning to an unreliable sun.

My father’s case arrived upside down, with its bright ribbon trapped beneath a handle. I recognised the dent before I saw the colour. He lifted it clear and asked why I was smiling. Without the bag to watch for, I could hear the announcements again. Other people remained facing the curtain, still waiting for their own small certainty to appear.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to convey the waiting passengers’ attention as the baggage carousel starts.

Write about 200 to 250 words.