laura_seabrook | Friends & Others [Therapy]

A few years ago there were people living in a house in bush near the abandoned sewerage farm. I used to walk Pegasus that way and made "friends" with them, or so I thought (the mother in particular). While they lived in that house - fine, no problems, happy to see me (I always suspected though, that they were involved in car theft, as there were more than one burnt out wreck near the house). But when they moved to West Wallsend, that changed.

I'd pop over to visit, the mother mainly, and she'd always "be out". Once I walked Pegasus over there and saw two teenagers on the back step watch me and then duck into the house and pretend not to be home! Well, after too many times I got the hint. They were happy to know me, while no one else knew that they did. This was before (and after) I had my surgery. The problem was that the mother was also involved in saving/restoring the local cemetery. It'd gone into decline - cars were being burnt in the middle of it - and the Mayor had promised to correct all that, due in part to demonstrations that she'd help to organise.

Half the time I'd gone over there was to find out what was happening. I did this one last time, as I was going to update my web page on it, and of course I got the "not at home" reply from the daughter when I asked after her. Then I asked the daughter if she had any information about the cemetery, and said that was the reason I'd come. "Miraculously" the mother appeared from a "visit next door" and we talked. We talked briefly about the cemetery (and yes, it now had new fencing, a solar powered night-light, shelter, and other improvements), but what she really wanted was details about my surgery and after!

I talked about that, yes, but felt more than a little annoyed by her attitude. I felt like some embarrassing curiosity, and not a friend at all. I was angry after that, and haven't visited them since. I did however, write an article for POLARE called The Bottom Line, or Fools and Others I Have Met, and mentioned them anonymously in it!