A LONG SLEEP

Chapter Four (you can find Chapter 3 here)

Copyright Stevie Turner 2019

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Mum is sitting by the door as I turn my key in her lock.

“I’ve been waiting here for ages. Where have you been?”

I stifle a sigh of exasperation.

“The M Eleven was blocked. I had to take a detour.”

“Oh. Well I’ve made some lunch for you. You’d better come and eat it.”

She rises stiffly to her feet, clutching her walker; an old lady so far removed from the mother I once had to be virtually unrecognisable. I follow behind her to the kitchen.

“We’ll go up the A Twelve going back. I can’t be doing with that again.”

Shuffle. Shuffle. The walker makes it to the kitchen. I want to scream at my mother’s slow pace, but realise that nothing whatsoever now has the ability to reverse the ageing…