Jaundiced Under The Sun

I WAS PULLING OLD NEWSPAPERS out of my bag yesterday. I am forever cluttered with newspapers. Old newsppaers. We get three daily ones free here (though one closed down due to recession ~ so now two). I am forever burdened down with newsprint. At least if I get caught short with diarrhoea I'll not be without wipes.

Anyway there I am, hovering by the telephone and cable TV substsation (dark green box under a bush at the end of the street) when an old lady hobbled past me.

She was soon accompanied by a middle aged grey-haired man. He looked like he'd spent the past 40 years swigging beer in an easy chair in front of the TV; she looked like a retired meths drinker.

Neither of them recognized me and I thought what a terrible thing this alcohol and drug addiction are, wrecking people's lives.

As soon as she recognized me she squarked and nearly spilled the rremains of the cyder she was swilling. At one point we shared the same druggieworker who came from South Wales so she kept asking me to do my impression and nearly pooed herself cackling. (So those newspapers would most definitely have come in handy.)

They both asked me whether I'd stopped taking gear and remared how tidy and smart I looked. He claimed not to have done gear in eight months. I think the flat tone of my answer gave away my disbelief.

I couldn't really tell them they looked well as they didn't. I quickly realized the yellow tone of her sink wasn't most probaby a suntan at all but jaundice. She was in a terrible state. Flyaway-haired, painfully thin (like my friend Lucky used to be before she died)... she looked worn-out and frazzled. He just seemed worn-out.

And then they were gone. Weaving along the back ways home. Whether or not he or they both gave up heroin, alcohol's obviously a big part of their lives and it's very sad. Apart from that I don't know what to say ...