Gillingham & Shaftesbury Guide November
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Shopping Trip by Rik Lonsdale<br />
I said I would drop her by the bridge at the bottom of High Street in <strong>Gillingham</strong>. It was our weekly<br />
shopping trip into town, and she had been hankering after a new cushion for her chair. To ease her<br />
back, like. So, before I park the car I leave her down by that furniture place, you know, the Suite and<br />
Bed Centre.<br />
‘I’ll meet you at our usual coffee place,’ I say.<br />
‘Alright love,’ she says, ‘see you in about an hour.’<br />
Well, I’m a bloke, aren’t I? It never takes an hour to do a bit of shopping, so I’m in the coffee shop<br />
ahead of time. I have a coffee and read the free newspaper. Then I have another and read another<br />
newspaper. Now she’s late, but no more than usual. I don’t want any more coffee, so I just sit and<br />
watch the world go by. Young mums with their tots come in for coffee and stay while the little ones<br />
behave. Some people are sat with computers. I don’t know what they are doing. Maybe working? But<br />
I don’t know what sort of work that would be.<br />
That sets me to thinking about work. It’s been ten years since I retired, but I can’t say as I miss it<br />
much. But it gave us a bit of a pension. Not a lot, but enough to get by on.<br />
But where is she? She’s an hour late now and I’m getting worried. I hope she hasn’t had one of the<br />
dizzy spells she’s been getting lately. And she’s always tired. She says she gets dizzy because she’s<br />
tired, but I don’t know. I think there’s something wrong. I hope she hasn’t fallen over. She’d be so upset<br />
if she embarrassed herself like that in public.<br />
I head down the high street looking for her. I can see a gaggle of folk up ahead and wonder if she’s<br />
there, but it’s only kids, admiring a new phone one of them has. I don’t know what all that fuss is<br />
about mobile phones, I can’t be bothered with them.<br />
I look in the other cafes in case she’s gone in the wrong one, but she hasn’t. I look in the charity<br />
shops too, in case she’s gone looking for a new book, but she isn’t there either. I’m really worried<br />
now.<br />
Then I’m at the bottom of High Street and I haven’t seen her. I go in the <strong>Gillingham</strong> Suite and Bed<br />
Centre. It’s my last hope.<br />
‘Can I help you?’ says the lass<br />
behind the counter.<br />
‘I don’t think so,’ I say, ‘I’ve<br />
lost my wife.’<br />
‘Come with me,’ she says. So I<br />
follow her round the displays<br />
of furniture. And there she is!<br />
She’s fast asleep on one of<br />
them recliner things, with her<br />
feet up. She looks ever so<br />
peaceful.<br />
‘It seemed such a shame to<br />
disturb her,’ says the lass.<br />
‘I don’t care how much, we’ll<br />
have it,’ I say.<br />
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