I’ve been properly literally left behind twice in my life, both times by those who are traditionally supposed to love me unconditionally – my parents.
The first time was when I was somewhere in the region of ten years old. It was during a road trip to god knows where and we were enjoying an unscheduled stop at a roadside fruit stall somewhere in Central Otago. We all got out of the car to stretch our legs while Mum went off to select some nectarines or some other type of fruity yuckness. When the time to came to marshal the troops, I was on it, I truly was, however just as I had my hand on the open car door, my Dad put his foot down and took off leaving me standing bewildered and a little humiliated next to the empty space the family car used to occupy.
Now once could be construed as bad luck, but twice – makes you wonder if they actually wanted a third child at all – perhaps we were all costing too much?
The second time I was about 12 and we were on a family outing to another family’s house with a multitude of other kiddies in tow. Come time to leave I was stupidly hanging out on my own at the top of their fort (dunno why they had a fort), my parents packed what they thought were all the kiddies into every conceivable corner of their enormous estate car and took off. I was lucky enough to raise my head above the parapet just in time to see the car disappearing down the long driveway…I later wandered off into a nearby forest and was subsequently raised by wolves, which obviously accounts for my habit of howling at the full moon once a month…
Fast forward to 21 years later and I am surrounded by those about to leave me behind. Not just in the realm of friends but also at work. The phrase ‘rats from a sinking ship’ springs to mind. It’s all most unsettling really. This week I shall be attending a leaving do on Wednesday night and another one on Saturday night…
And yes I shall be going on about this until they have all gone and then I’ll start bitching about my utter lack of social life and the fact that I never leave my flat…
