'Tis Done

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Freedom!
‘Tis done.
The hardest part was returning the laptop. It had entwined itself into my soul and had to be wrenched out of my reluctant arms. I had earlier stared at the keys and the mouse pad that my fingers had worn down to a shine with great sadness.
All that work.
When I finally left the building there was no one there to witness my ignominious exit past the recycling skips.
I’d even accidentally managed to miss my own lunchtime leaving do. I was sitting instead in the grounds of St Andrew’s Hospital thinking of John Clare and trying to see the things through his eyes such as the old church and the game of crochet on the green.
I returned to the leftovers.
Only one of the three members of staff who were leaving had been present for the surprise lunch. One had been rounded up by the photocopying machine, I could not be found and arrived late, and the third wasn’t even at work that day so she stood even less of a chance of being surprised.
I was given elephants.
Beautiful wooden elephants.
There was another staff do, an evening meal at Red Hot. It was my first time there and the chocolate fountain alone won me over.
‘Chocolate comes from a bean,’ someone explained to me. ‘And this is a grape, and if you cover it with chocolate then you are getting two of the five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.’
I loved the logic.
So with a grape skewered on a stick, I happily coated it with chocolate from the fountain…delicious!
And so beginneth a new chapter…