Page 23 of Love Unlocked

- Hello from Berlin. Me and my boyfriend broke up the day the love locks were taken, we had a love lock on the bridge.

- I’m in Denmark, my husband dumped me the day the love locks were removed, we had a love lock on the bridge.

- Sadly this is true. My girlfriend and I broke up. My decision but nothing to do with the love lock. But we did have one on the bridge.

- What is wrong with Melody’s voice? Does she have a throat infection?

- After thirty years of marriage my husband and I ended our marriage. We too had a love lock on the Grace Plunkett Bridge, we put it there while travelling through Ireland. Heartbroken. Is there any way we can get the love locks back?

New Zealand, Cincinnati, Boston, Essex, Cologne … Melody looks at all the towns, cities and countries these responses are coming from. On and on they flow. Three thousand, four hundred and seventy-four comments so far and they’re continuing to flow in. They sit in silence as they all take time to scroll through them.

Melody finally looks up from her phone and watches them both for a moment.

‘Prunella?’ She’s not saying anything. ‘Has her screen frozen?’

‘I’m here.’

‘Listenership in the recent episode has increased, subscriptions are up in two days. I think that people are interested in this particular topic. They’ll want to hear more about it. What more do you know about it, Melody?’

‘Nothing,’ she laughs.

‘I can find out,’ Prunella says, sitting up and putting her phone down. ‘I’d be happy to research it, get someone on the phone or do an interview on the podcast. We definitely have to respond to this reaction.’

Melody looks at Ed in a frozen smile. This is Melody’s item that Prunella had no interest in. She’s night and Prunella is day, this is Melody’s anti-love piece, not Prunella’s, but now that it’s successful she’s all over it. Ed’s mulling it over, she can’t bear it. She has to assert herself before Prunella takes it away.

‘I brought it up on the pod because I’m fascinated with it. My mum and her husband broke up, and they had a love lock on the bridge. It feels personal to me, so I’d like to keep going myself with it.’

‘Okay,’ Prunella says, sitting back.

‘Do we actually think it’s a thing though?’ Melody asks. ‘The love locks being linked to the break-ups? It couldn’t actually be the case, could it? It’s just coincidence. Or does it show that relationships are fragile things hanging on by a thread and the love locks are the hope, the glue, and when that was gone, relationships lost their glue.’

They look at her, surprised.

‘Yeah, you should definitely look into it, Melody,’ Ed says. ‘You brought this one to the table.’

Prunella is poker-faced. She’s in her dressing room at the TV studio. Hair in curlers. Under-eye patches to cool and soothe her under-eye area, make-up on, a rail of clothes and shoes behind her.

‘If there is something in this,’ Prunella says, ‘then maybe we could help couples reunite by returning love locks to their owners. Including your mum.’

Melody’s not sure if getting her mum and Derek back together again is her intention. This is not some attempt to make inner-child Melody feel better again. But. But she does feel as if the world is upside down with Belinda and Derek apart. If her mother can fall out of love with Derek then her mother can fall out of love with her. It’s already happening, isn’t it? Belinda is already disconnecting from her. If the love locks being removed from the Grace Plunkett Bridge has reduced her mum’s capacity for love then she’ll try anything to bring it back.

‘I have to go, we’re filming a piece for the show later,’ Prunella says. ‘Talk later.’

It’s six thirty a.m. It feels like the middle of the night for Melody, she had driven home from a gig, a student night in Limerick, and arrived home at five a.m. She felt like she’d only climbed into bed when she had to surface for the early Zoom. She wishes she could get back into bed but now her mind is alert, and like a ping-pong ball bouncing everywhere after being on social media. She ends the Zoom call just as Claire appears with her bicycle.

‘Morning,’ Melody says. ‘Apparently I’ve gone viral.’

Claire sees to her gown and wig for court. As a junior counsel barrister she must wear the black gown and white collar for court, the white wig is optional. One in ten people wear it and Claire is one of those people.

‘I hope it clears up soon,’ she says drily.

Melody realises that her viral news is of very little importance in comparison to the day Claire has ahead of her, and again feels like an airhead.

‘Could I use you as a model for a moment?’ Claire asks.

‘Sure.’

Claire leans her bicycle against the wall, and pulls a wooden spoon from a display rack. She stands behind Melody, so close Melody can feel her body, and she wraps her left arm around Melody’s neck as if she’s going to strangle her.