Marrow Creek · Meet the driver

Iron Wagon

At the wheel: Mara Osei

Audi 1994 Avant RS2

Room for four wheels

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Mara Osei knows how much a delivery can shift in the back of a wagon. She spent years carrying everyone else's spare wheels before asking what she could do with her own.

What goes in before breakfast

On delivery mornings Mara eats an egg at the kitchen sink and watches the scale of the work change with every crate that comes to the barn door. Her father sits beside the door numbering the order slips. He'll use a crayon up to the last bit anyone can still grip. The slip for the harbor comes with a square around it. Salt likes to settle in the folds of the return crates, and he wants those brought back for a rinse before they go out again.

The Audi hauled plenty of the small jobs before Mara was trusted with the cooperative truck. She still knows what fits straight between the wheel arches of the 1994 Avant RS2 and what needs a second piece of rope. She has brought home empty baskets, a warm dog, a disputed allotment prize and, once, a measuring stick for the fruit shed. That last thing poked her in the shoulder the whole way.

The shift with Emerald Express

When two delivery routes were combined, Mara shared a shift with Emerald Express and discovered an entirely different way to pack a boot. Her preference was to keep the weight close to the front and reach over it. The argument for putting the first delivery nearest the lid was hardest to answer when she dropped a peach reaching for a crate. She maintains that the peach was already soft. Her father asked about it later, and she told him it didn't make it as far as a handover.

At Bea's Counter she still begins the debate if she sees Emerald Express in the queue. Each of them has made a concession the other refuses to recognize as a change of mind. Mara will put the light first stop right by the lid now, if nobody has left her anything she has to keep upright.

“It was a perfectly serviceable peach until I tried to prove a point with it.”

Mara Osei · At Bea's Counter after the combined route.

The errand that didn't go out

The garage first knew her as the person with another driver's spares. She did not bring the Audi down to be useful; she brought it because she wanted to drive. People who had seen her lift a crate seemed to miss that part. She would remark that she should have a go sometime and then sign up to do a job that ran right through the practice slot.

Ruth from Butter Brick asked her straight out whether Mara had been waiting for someone to insist. She found this very rude for about a week. In that week she took three calls from people asking whether the Audi could pick something up. On the third call she said she needed it. There was a pause. The other person said of course and made a different arrangement in less than a minute. Mara kept the phone up awhile after they said goodbye.

The sound of an empty boot

For her first private runs, Mara carried the measuring stick again so she could check a difference in height by the track. She forgot to take it back out. The loose clatter she heard coming into the bend was the stick hitting the slot where the rear cover clips in. She wants a longer run on a tighter section to see whether the heavy wagon can change direction on time. She no longer pads the whole day with other jobs in case the test feels too ambitious.

At the loading shed, her father keeps a small drawstring sack for things that should go in her hand rather than her boot. It has the receipts, the last shreds of his crayons, and a peach in a bit of wax paper. He knows which pocket she keeps free to carry it.

“I've got four wheels in the boot if you're counting the ones attached to the floor.”

Mara Osei · Asked whether she brought spares to her own test.

Mic at the pits

One soft peach

Mack Packed this boot yourself?

Mara Osei Yes. The first crate goes against the seats. The peach goes where I can't drop it while explaining how clever I am.

Mack I'll hold that.

Meet the voice behind the microphone