Left behind

Joanne was so busy, she forgot something very important¼

Fridays are always busy, but this one was worse than usual. At least I think it was. Usually I' m so busy rushing around there' s no time to even think about how busy I am rushing around.

Anyway, first on my mental to-do list was to buy my son Darren' s choice of comics.

He reads them all

Superman, Spider-Man, every flippin' man you can think of. So I sprinted into the newsagents and bought the lot.

I even bought a magazine I would never have time to read and slipped his comics inside it. One crease decreases their value, so Darren tells me. Next stop was the hairdressers to make an appointment for my daughter Carla. She caught me just as I was racing out the front door.

Can you pop into Cut Above for me, Mum?'

Can' t you phone them?' I replied, almost diving into my shoes.

If I didn' t get to the high street soon, I knew that I wouldn' t be back in time to start cooking. Matt and Helen were coming round for dinner tonight and I couldn' t let them down. Aah, Mum. Pleeease¼'

So I sprinted into the hairdressers, queued for 10 minutes to make an appointment for Carla, then sped off to the garage.

We needed petrol and Mark that' s my husband

Usually I' m so busy rushing around there' s no time to even think about how busy I am rushing around

hadn' t had time to do it. Oh, and while you' re there, Joanne, can you get a new windscreen-wiper blade. And check the oil. And maybe just give the back tyres a puff of air. They seemed a bit flabby last time I looked.'

After the high street and the garage, I drove to the supermarket. There' s a little patch of lawn outside and a bench no one ever sits on. I jogged past this and into the shop, a cavernous void of fluorescent misery.

I scooped items into a trolley, paid and ran outside. If I was lucky, I would get home just in time for a two-minute cuppa before I needed to start prepping Matt and Helen' s dinner.

That was when I saw the bench and changed my mind. I would stop here and take my two-minute break. Forget the cup of tea.

I sat down.

My trolley loaded with shopping was parked beside me, in front of me were about a thousand cars rammed together in the car park, and the wooden seat felt cold and hard against my bottom and back. It also felt absolutely wonderful.

I closed my eyes. I shut out the sound of a toddler having a tantrum somewhere behind me and ignored the raucous laughter of a small circle of men enjoying cigarettes beside the trolley bay.

I stayed that way for about two minutes before the guilt set in. Stop on a bench no one ever sits on when I had so much to do? What on earth was I thinking?

I shot to my feet, heaved the trolley in front of me and began rushing to my car.

I don' t know what made me turn back. But what I saw when I did made no sense at all.

Someone was sitting on the bench no one sits on.

She wore the same trousers as me, the same cardigan, the same shoes. Beside her was a trolley packed with exactly the same shopping I had just bought.

I was staring at myself. I looked tired. Exhausted. Utterly shattered. The skin on my cheeks appeared sallow and grey, my eyes heavy and tired. My shoulders were arched like those of a Victorian milkmaid.

Standing a short walk away from myself, I saw a woman who never stopped working for other people people who rarely raised a finger to help her.

Did I tell you my son is 24? Why couldn' t he buy his own comics? And why can' t a 19-year-old book her own hair appointment? As for my husband Mark, he actually works in a garage! Can you believe that?

I walked slowly back towards the bench. The image of me on it faded away and the real me took her place. This time, I gathered my thoughts, then decided to close my eyes and settle in for a nice long rest. And no one could stop me.

Because I didn' t even like Matt and Helen. And it was definitely time to slow down.