That morning, after the early customers had left and set off up Dundas Street, there was a brief period during which Big Lou found herself alone in her coffee bar. She usually spent such quiet periods carrying out various housekeeping tasks – polishing her gleaming Italian coffee-machine, or wiping the already spotless counter-top and table surfaces. Coming from the North-east of Scotland, Big Lou had a bone-deep belief in order and cleanliness – “There’s nae time for ony mess,” her mother said to her as a child. “There’s nae guid comes frae a slorach or a fankle.” Slorach and fankle were Scots words for … well, slorachs and fankles. Like many Scots words, one only had to utter them to understand their meaning.