a meeting about hats (2), London, prologue

They arrive in the office in the late morning and are sent upstairs. Park is standing in the office kitchen, her back towards them, edges of tattoos emerging from the half sleeves of her teeshirt. She was making tea and chatting to a younger japanese woman woman whose hair was cut short and sculptured to her head. Park had a tray in front of her and had placed cups and saucers of the tray, two glass teapots, she was waiting for the water to boil. The other woman was slumped against the work surface making coffee from the espresso machine. They stopped and looked at Park’s back. The other Japanese woman shifted position, gently pulled herself upright. Park was watching her and turned gracefully to face them. You are here, I’ve made tea, lets go into my office. Here then there will be reported speech, undisguised indirect speech. The confusion of pronouns, the confusing impossibility of speech.