Coffee and fleeing thoughts

I see an old colleague in the cafe near the office. She hasn’t been well, I heard. Getting forgetful.

I join her.

Hi, Rachel, remember me?

Oh, hi! What are you doing now? 

Same old, same old. What about you? What have you been up to these days?

Oh, I’m giving it up. I’m going to stop it all. My last position, volunteering at the hospice… It will end in two months.

Really retiring now, finally, eh? What do you really look forward to?

Er.. reading. It’s so important. To read a good book.…. Say, what are you doing nowadays?

Just the usual …. What are your plans the rest of today?

After this, I’m going to the bank. And then… I’m going home. Next week, I’m taking a holiday. 

That’s fantastic. Where are you going?

To Malaysia. Be close to nature. I find it… refreshing, really refreshing. You know, this place, really difficult to find the way. Bad design.

Yes, there’ve been a lot of changes. New shops. It doesn’t look anything like what it used to.

Yes, yes.

Look, let me not hold you back. Can I walk you back to your car? Where did you park?

The usual place. Level 2.

I was getting really concerned. There are no carparks on Level 2.

Do you remember which lift you took? Look, I’ll bring you down the lift nearer our offices. We’ll start looking there.

We found her car ten minutes later and she drove off. I looked after her with concern. What will she do? Who will look after her? She didn’t have family and lived on her own. Probably her friends will have to band together. I made a mental note to look them up.