Southend U3A

A Strangers Tale - Joan Bond

January 2012

I knew it was going to be a long boring journey but I was looking forward to a read and a snooze and some peace and quiet. Please don't let anyone sit next to me!

Oh no, here comes someone, pretend to be asleep.

'Hello, Mave, fancy seeing you after all this time, must be twenty years.'

Miki; I was amazed to see her again after so long. She settled into the seat next to me.

'Well,' she started, 'remember me and Ian? He finally divorced his wife, moved up to Derby, and then the rat married some floozie young enough to be his granddaughter. So I decided to get married again, went to an agency and met Edgar. He was lovely and I thought he was rich, although he said he wasn't. Well he wasn't! We bought a big farmhouse then he lost his job for fiddling his expenses so we had to sell and go into a tiny flat. At the same time Tim, left his job at the Westcliff Casino and went to work at Sun City. You know what a good lad he is, he must have got in with the wrong crowd because he was caught stealing 6 million rand, they sent him down for three years. So unfair; I went to see the president or whatever but they wouldn't let him off, so he missed my wedding, African jails are terrible. When he got out he had to go to the States, got a job in Reno and was doing well, but someone recognised him from Sun City so they had to sack him, then he went into real estate.

'We finally found Carol, she was living in a squat and had a baby, Jamie; we managed to get her a flat but she couldn't cope and had Jamie adopted. She regretted it so she had another one - Jordon - he's about twelve now. She married again but it didn't last.

'Dianne met the horrible Tony with the tattoos, when she was still supposed to be at school, not that she ever went. I could have reported him, she was under age but by then he was in prison for drugs so there wasn't much point. Anyway she waited for him to come out and then had four more kids. She had one adopted and lost one when she fell down stairs, I believe he pushed her. She got into so much trouble, drink, drugs, money, she left the girls with me and did a moonlight over to Vegas. She met Jerry, they got married and have two girls, he's an alcoholic and a lawyer, a criminal one; defends the criminals. Loads of money, massive house, but he keeps having to go into hiding.

'Edgar and I moved over there as well, but he began to get on my nerves so he had to go. Then I heard he was gun running so I nipped down to Mexico for a quickie divorce. You are liable for your partner's debts out there, and I thought he'd probably get shot before long. I'm in real estate now, it's hard work, I do a bit of home helping on the side. You must come over; Vegas is an amazing place, you'll love it.

'Oops, my stop coming up, got to go. It's been lovely to see you and to hear all your news, bye.'