Time

There is an old lady who lives around the corner from me. She wears an old grey coat and sensible shoes. Whenever I pass her she says: "Sorry to trouble you, but you couldn't tell me the time could you?" She has a very educated sounding tone to her voice. She throws bird seed to the sparrows on the pavement. She lives in a garage.

It took me awhile to realise that she lived in a garage, but one day I saw her coat hanging in the side door to the garage, and heard music coming from inside. Sometimes I see her counting her change in the dairy, or standing on the corner of two streets looking as if she is thinking about going somewhere quite grand.

I think she asks me the time so that she can talk to someone. Is it possible that she really needs to know the time when time has forgotten her?