To keep my brain ticking over I’ve decided to do a prompt every Friday morning. I have to admit that I’ve blatantly stolen the idea from the Friday Fictioneers 🙂

Todays piece is inspired by this photo, which i took whilst taking tea (get me!) at Fortnum & Masons last month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It inspired a character more than an actual story…

Gwen sat by the window. Once a week, usually on a Thursday afternoon, the carer would come and she’d have four hours. Four whole hours. It sounded like a long time, and on that first week it was. But now, it was as if the moment she left the house Old Father Time winked and before she knew it she was back on the bus.

At 55 Gwen had been looking forward to a relaxing retirement with her husband John.

“First stop..the pyramids gell.” Was what he always said when they sat watching the cruise programmes. There would be a faraway twinkle in his eye and a playful smile on his lips.

But that was five years ago now, before that damn disease had taken the man she loved and all hopes of world cruises.

“Can i get you anything else Madam?”

Gwen looked up into the face of the waiter. In his twenties and attractive, he reminded her of how John used to be, how full of colour and expression.

“No, thank you, just the bill please?”

The waiter bowed and left the table.

Gwen thought back to the conversation she had had with her son the night before. Conversation? Or was it a lecture?

“You really need to put him in a home Mum. Its obvious you can’t cope. Look at this place?”

Adam only visited once a month. Where had she gone wrong? They’d never been close. The minute he left for University they’d been like strangers, just connected by blood.

But perhaps Adam was right? Perhaps, if she did put John in a home she could take tea at a hotel near the Pyramids. After all, as far as John was concerned she was now a stranger…

 

Awwww…poor Gwen…What should she do?