Pensioned Off by Sue Dawson

Author:Sue Dawson [Dawson, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781664107441
Publisher: Xlibris NZ
Published: 2022-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

You light up my life

With a smile on your dial

You’re the only hot affair

I’ve had in a while.

—from ‘Sharp Carousel’, the microwave song by Ruth Drummond

Trudy and Neil arrived at Tomiko’s place in one car. They left their shoes at the door and entered after being greeted by Josh and Maia. Tomiko was setting out a lovely meal of rice, seasoned seaweed, miso soup, pickles, salad, sashimi, and stir-fried pork, followed by cream puffs and washed down with hot green tea.

After dinner, they retired to the living room, while Tomiko got Maia ready for bed. Trudy was delighted when Maia requested that she read her a bedtime story. It was an especially poignant experience for Trudy even though the story was cheerful and funny.

Neil was able to draw on his experience of travelling in Japan to ignite a good flame of conversation in her absence. It was a lovely evening. Trudy wished it could be the start of many, but, alas, it was not to be. This could well be the last she would see of them, apart from superficial glimpses on Facebook.

* * * * * *

Ruth rolled up to her first Stitch ’n Bitch meeting. It was held at Heather’s tennis club, the very same place they had been booked to play at a fundraiser to mend the leaky roof. Fortunately, it was a fine day, so the sieve-like qualities of the roof were not in evidence.

There were about half a dozen women, all in the mature age bracket, of whom Heather, of course, was the leading light. They were doing various forms of needlework. Ruth had brought along the beautiful pink matinee jacket she was knitting featuring a border of little lacy love hearts. Ruth felt sure that at least one of Melanie’s babies would be a girl. They didn’t want to find out ahead of time, which Ruth found a little inconsiderate. It would be helpful to know, as she was getting tired of knitting in gender-neutral colours, hence she was going out on a limb with the pink.

The ladies chatted about anything and everything, probably more bitching than stitching if you tallied it up. The conversation eventually came around to that evergreen staple—what they were having for dinner that night. Most of the ladies, it transpired, did not live alone so were inspired to take a little more trouble with meals. They mostly seemed to have it under control and had already removed some meaty item out of the freezer in readiness. When it came to Ruth’s turn, she decided to make a bit of a joke about the sad, solitary selection she had in mind.

‘I’m just having YMCA tonight.’

‘Oh?’ they replied, their curiosity piqued.

‘Yesterday’s Muck Cooked Again. I’m the queen of the microwave, living alone, as I do, and quite happily, I might add.’

The conversation eventually turned to the joys of retirement. Ruth remarked that she still felt a bit of guilt when she finally crawled out of bed and witnessed the chain of commuters making their way to work to earn their crust.

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