Leggingsun@60+com

The week I got home from my holidays was the day of the Thunderstorm, the one in which the lightening hit the spire of the old church near to the library, and the cafe below was demolished. God had spoken literally!

Spain had been flawless, as usual, the sea had been an aquarmarine blue, and the sky a more pastal shade. The sun had shone over the tourists, a waterfall of soft warmth. We could hardly grumble. Some did anyway. Human nature being what it is.

Immelda walked in on the 3rd night, her hair a carefully shambled mess, I raged silently, mine had to be done tidy.
"How are you?" she purred, sliding a finger over the edge of her wine glass, "It's been ages - Darling!"
"About twenty years!" I agreed, putting down my fork of salad, and spreading my fingers over the tablecloth. "I'm okay!"
"You don't look any older!" she said, smoothing the rumpled tresses, "Still slim, fit too?"
"Keep young and beautiful, if you want to be loved!" I sang out, feeling a need to be sick. From close up I could see that her neck had started to crumple, she was beginning to crease, she was no longer immortal.

"how do you do it?" she asked seriously, sitting down. "I hear such things about England nowadays, since I became an ex-pat!"
"What things?" I queried, carefully, "People seem about the same to me."
"I hear that young women are suffering Dementia," her face creased up into tear lines, "My daughter for one. Only 30 next month. Too much binge drinking!"
I wasn't sure what to say, I handed her a tissue silently.
Was this also a sign of the times? Immelda had been to the special school too, another one like me with certain differences. I'd half expected to find out her daughter was an x-woman. Anything had been thought possible.

"You're about my age?" Immelda said uncertainly, "Aren't you?"
My eyes filled with tears, I had to lie again. "Not exactly, I went to school very young..."
"You were one of the very bright ones..." she said, "I didn't know..."
"You were too?" I thought she had been, she'd been a good mate all the way through, admittedly we wern't allowed to do the tests together but...