Minding

LORRAINE’s car is packed with Lidl bags of groceries, washed sheets, ironed clothes. She waits outside a countryside Donegal hotel for her daughter CARLA, now a college student in Dublin who has finished her last shift in her weekend job at home. Alone in the car, LORRAINE watches CARLA depart the hotel, particularly unnerved by an older MALE DUTY MANAGER who stands too close to her.. LORRAINE pops a Polo mint in her mouth - then suddenly, senses some… presence in the car. LORRAINE listens to this presence as if it’s speaking to her, then straightens her posture, a little irked. CARLA gets into the car and strips out of her work clothes. The two only have half an hour until the bus departs from a nearby town. The journey is a push-pull of LORRAINE’s varying attempts at minding CARLA (reminding her to sit up straight, not to forget the bottle of water, checking she’s ok for money, prying about the male manager, protesting against her taking birth control pills..), versus CARLA navigating and trying to not blow up at what she sees as her mother’s annoying behaviour, rather than sage advice.

Tension reaches a head as CARLA discovers LORRAINE has laced homemade shepherd’s pie she is making her eat with cod liver oil, in an attempt to pump more vitamins into her daughter. CARLA loses her head. During a petrol stop, feeling guilty, CARLA picks up a her mothers’ favourite sweets as an early Mother’s Day present, and peace offering. Yet hopes for peace are crushed when CARLA returns to the car to find LORRAINE on red alert after discovering CARLA’s hotel uniform in her bag for Dublin. It is revealed that CARLA plans to work weekends in Dublin from now on, which LORRAINE is totally against. It’s a stark confrontation for LORRAINE that CARLA won’t be coming home at weekends, no longer there to mind.

CARLA explodes at her mother’s overbearingness as they arrive at their destination. Car doors slammed, no goodbye is said. Alone in the car, LORRAINE feels the same presence speaking to her again. We now see this presence is a ghostly elderly woman who tells LORRAINE to sit up straight. LORRAINE ‘s own mother. LORRAINE wraps her hand around her mother’s, a ghostly presence she misses. On the bus, CARLA fights her upset. Before the bus leaves, a familiar voice speaks to the driver and manoeuvres up the aisle. It’s LORRAINE, who gives CARLA the bottle of water she has forgotten. As LORRAINE turns to go, she hears words being choked out. We now see it is OLDER CARLA choking out these words: ‘thank you’. OLDER CARLA speaks to an empty aisle, as LORRAINE is no longer there. OLDER CARLA looks out at the town, full of old memories, and her mother’s favourite sweet into her mouth. The bus pulls her away, as she thinks of the motherly presence she misses.