People, Places

Days Like This

Karen J Mossman

by Karen J Mossman

My sister had just had a baby. It was 1999, and we had one of those new mobile landlines that didn’t have an aerial on it. So I rang her, and we talked for a while. Later, I went shopping and came away with lots of things I hadn’t intended to buy. One was a pair of earrings. I usually wear dangly one, but this time I bought some stud ones for a change.  I tried them on and was about to visit my mum and the earring I was wearing matched my necklace so decided not to wear the studs this time. Now bear with me. This is relevant.

As I drove to my mum’s house with my daughter, she asked me why I asked wearing a poppy.  She was with me when we both bought one for £2 each. I glanced down and saw a green stalk and a pin. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

When I reached Mum’s house, she said, “Do you know you have lost an earring?” I looked in the mirror and sighed. I’d only put one of them back in.

Later I went into my handbag for my phone instead there was the house phone. I sighed again.

 

It’s not the first time I had days like this.  On another occasion, I was getting dressed in the morning and put on a big cardigan and went downstairs. I was thinking about how it was heavier than normal and when I got to the bottom realised a velcro strapped shoe had attached itself to the bottom.

Later, about to take the dog for a walk I stood in the hallway, and leaned down to clip on her lead.

Standing back up, I stepped back and my foot caught the bottom of the stairs. I lost my balance and in the split second it took to fall, I thought, I can’t save myself and hit the floor like a sack of spuds.
For a moment I lay there wondering if anything hurt or had snapped. My two new knees felt intact, my shoulder, where I landed felt ok, too. My coccyx was a little jarred, but thankfully no damage.
After a moment, I moved carefully around, so I was sitting on my bottom. My little Yorkie started trembling and kept nudging me before climbing on my lap. I got to my feet after assuring her I was ok, and we went out with me feeling very lucky.
The final incident of the day was when dusk was settling. I was on my way to the front door, which has a frosted glass window, to go and put rubbish in the bin at the side of the house. I could see the reflection of my shadow approaching. It suddenly struck, I’ve never had a shadow there before. I opened and screamed as the shadow loomed up at me. My son looked at me as if I was stupid. “I do live here, you know?”

I was looking through an old diary and came across this from 2006.

“Last night I was the last one up and crept up the stairs to the bathroom in darkness. I finished cleaning my teeth and as I turned away something hit me in the back.

I squealed and spun round, only to realise my dressing gown belt had caught on the door of the cupboard. As I turned away, it had opened and smacked me on the behind.

I felt so silly.

Do these sorts of things happen to you? It can’t be just me, surely?

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