This did once happen to me, so it may not be as barmy as it sounds!
"Thing!"
An exasperated Ruth raged at the wheel of her bag, as it finally gave up the ghost and hung limply in defeat. She dragged it on but it was no use. It was like pulling a dead weight, a dead weight that was determined to go nowhere.
She picked the bag up and her shoulder socket screamed its objection.
She wondered, not for the first time, quite why she had packed so much for only five days away. Maybe she hadn't really needed to bring The Complete Euripides.
Knowing she wasn't going to get very far like this she put the bag down once more and this time placed the long strap over her shoulder and hoisted the bag up and onto her hip. Her shoulder complained but she was on the move and the train would not wait for much longer and so she walked on towards the station.
Harry hoped that Ruth would hurry up and get back. She had been away too long. It was always too long.
She had said that she was visiting a friend from university. As far as he remembered she'd never visited them before. She'd never even mentioned them before.
But he had no reason to doubt her. And yet there was something in her going away that bothered him.
It was late as she finally clambered off the train only to be greeted by the most unwelcome sign informing her that the tube was closed due to necessary repairs. She staggered up the escalator, her shoulder screaming and the strap biting into her neck.
There was no easy bus route from here. She'd get a cab. As she emerged towards the light and felt the fresh air she also felt the rain and knew that cabs would be few and far between. She was right.
An hour and a quarter later, drenched and exhausted she opened her front door and off loaded the bag.
A hot bath, that was what she needed, a bath from which she may ever get out.
An hour and a half after that she was still lying in that bath, a glass of red wine nestled in her hands.
Harry stood looking out of his window willing away the night. She was back tomorrow.
Ruth climbed out of bed the following morning. Back to work. She was glad of it. It had been good to see Elizabeth but she missed the Grid more than she had expected. That was a lie. She knew that she had missed Harry more than she had expected. She had spent quite a bit of her private time wondering what it would have been like to go visiting Elizabeth with him. As a couple. She was being foolish she thought, like a teenager.
Almost late she took a quick glance in the mirror before turning for the door.
She turned back, her mouth aghast in horror, her eyes fixed.
He looked at his watch hoping that she would be in early as she always was for then he would see her before his meeting with the HS. She was cutting it fine.
Ruth was still stood before the mirror. Her eyes had not moved from the dark purple bruise that stained her neck, between her shoulder and collar bone.
The bag strap had spent hours digging into her skin. She had clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the discomfort. Now she wished she hadn't.
No one would believe her.
She was going to have to spend the day explaining to those that would listen, that no, she hadn't had a rampant, sex fuelled week away and no, it was most definitely not a love bite.
And what of those who just saw it, to whom she wouldn't have chance to explain, what of them as they passed, laughing and sniggering and talking about her?
She marched away grabbing the offending, now empty bag which she stuffed into the dustbin, muttering furiously.
And then she returned to the mirror.
A scarf, she needed to find a scarf.
And Harry. She needed to avoid Harry.