A newly commissioned story from Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments and the 1993 Booker Prize winner, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Read by Liam Carney Produced by Nicola Holloway Podcast presented by Rick Woska
BBC sounds music radio podcasts hello and welcome back to the BBC short story podcast.
This week's selection is focused around an elderly couple's relationship and is written by Booker award winning irish author Roddy Doyle.
In this touching and funny story, new hearing aids lead Barry to look afresh at his marriage to Donagh and the way he has behaved in the past.
Hearing aids by Roddy Doyle read by me Liam Carney they were in a part of the city that they didn't know very well.
They knew the names Rathgar and Sandymount, but they weren't too sure about how to get from one to the other.
Barry was doing the driving, and before starting he'd gone to Google Maps on his phone and typed in Sandy Mount.
He wished he hadn't.
He was wearing his new hearing aids.
That was the problem.
He wasn't used to them, wasn't sure yet about what exactly they could do besides making him hear better.
The woman in the hearing place, the audiologist, she'd told him that he'd be able to listen to the radio and to Spotify, and podcasts direct from his phone to the hearing aids.
Phone calls and alerts would go straight to his ears.
There'd be all sorts of benefits, but he'd only had the things a couple of days, and he still hated them.
The idea of them, the fact of them lurking there behind his ears.
They were coming up to what looked like a t junction, and the Google woman spoke for the first time and told Barry to turn left.
Then Donna spoke.
We go right here, I think, she said.
Barry turned left.
He didn't know that Donna hadn't heard the Google woman, that the Google woman was talking only to Barry, straight into his ears.
He only copped on a few seconds later, too late, Donna had shouted at him.