Member-only story
Vignettes — #4
Stavros
Josh wheels the old man out into the sunny courtyard at the aged-care facility. Stavros points to a spot under a gumtree. “There. I cannot burn my nose.”
Josh manoeuvres the wheelchair into the dappled shade and turns it so Stavros can look over the garden. Josh stands awkwardly, not knowing what to do next.
“Thank you. You can go back inside, I think.”
“Mum told me I should talk with you.”
“Good. Talk.”
“I don’t have anything interesting to talk about.”
“You poor boy, having such a dull life. You do nothing interesting? You have girlfriend?”
“Um, sort of.”
“Sort of? What you mean?”
“Well, there’s this girl. She’s in another class, but we walk home together. She lives in the next street from me. I like her. We don’t do anything, like, you know, if she was a real girlfriend.”
“What, you don’t kiss her?”
Josh shuffles his feet and kicks at a weed. “Sort of, I suppose.”
“Everything with you is sort of? What is ‘sort of’ kiss?”
“Well, you know, like, it’s … it’s not like in a film or like people in Neighbours.”
