An Old Friend

‘Usual?’

‘Yes please Jim’

David took a sip of the cold beer and instantly relaxed. What a day it had been, it would make his life a lot easier if the company would just bite the bullet and get rid of Norman. He heard Janet saying to another blonde on the way out ‘he’s such a loveable old gent though isn’t he?’ As far as David was concerned being a ‘loveable old gent’ didn’t make Norman any less of an incompetent moron. Unfortunately he can’t sack anyone for being old though so he would have to just put up with Norman. He took another sip of his beer brushing a very slight pang of guilt away as he did so. He knew Anna had a busy day today but he just couldn’t face going home to his very loud home quite yet with Emily’s screaming and Anna’s nagging.

And that’s when he seen him. The bar had a long mirror across the back and he caught sight of the man’s reflection. Just sitting, staring as he always does. David normally pretends to ignore him as admittedly it is a little unnerving to have a stalker but not today. Today he was going to confront him. He isn’t your usual stalker, David thought, or what he would imagine a usual stalker to look like anyway. The old man must be in his seventies. When you think about it, it’s sad really. He probably hasn’t got a life and is living vicariously through me. Regardless, it was getting a bit much. He had seen the bobbly grey cardigan and flat cap so many times now, despite it being a small town, it can’t be a coincidence that he has been watched by the old man at work, at his weekly tennis games with the lads, out of town meetings, even his daughters ballet recital and now at Jim’s bar. Enough was enough!

He marched over to the old man and demanded to know ‘What do you want, you old fart? Is it my money you want to steal?’ The old man just looked at him with a pleasant smile. This wound David up even more. Did the old codger actually have the nerve to mock him!?

‘Well?’ David prompted.

‘I’m not here to steal anything from you, I’m here to receive a gift from you’ the old man replied.

‘A gift? And what gift might that be?’

‘Your youth’

David stared at the man perplexed. He actually was an old fruit loop.

The old man spoke again ‘I’ve been watching you for a while now and I think you will one day regret how you treat people, especially us old fogies. We may not look much but most of us have more to offer the world than people realise. And, after all, you will be old yourself one day, perhaps sooner than you think.’

David looked at the man astonished, how dare he speak to him like that. He grabbed his expensive jacket from the bar stool and smoothed his hair whilst regaining his composure. ‘Very sorry to have offended you in some way sir. I will amend my ways. Now I must get going’ that should get the old codger off his back he thought sarcastically as he started towards the door.

‘Unfortunately, it is a bit late for apologies and the time has come to reap what you’ve sewn.

‘Go home you old drunk’ David replied before he headed out into the cold air.

The next morning David woke up with a start. He looked at the time and realising he was late darted out of bed and into the shower. ‘Anna, why did you let me sleep in and make me late!?’ he hollered down the stairs. Of course she didn’t hear him.

As he started brushing his teeth he froze. Looking in the mirror he noticed his sideburns were grey! He was almost positive that he had not one grey yesterday. He has friends also in their early thirties who are starting to look middle aged sporting the grey hair or bald patches and pot bellies look. But not him. Suddenly the old man’s words replayed in his head ‘…after all, you will be old yourself one day, perhaps sooner than you think.’

This was ridiculous; he was just paranoid that’s all. He had probably had those greys for weeks and being so busy at work not noticed them till now.

‘Oo you look snappy, where you off to?’ Anna said buttering some toast as he entered the kitchen

‘Work’ he replied snappily as he stole a piece of her freshly buttered toast. ‘Of course late now. Why didn’t you wake me up?’

She laughed at him ‘Because it’s Saturday you muppet!’

Feeling rather foolish he changed out of his work suit and stepped out the door making his way to the tennis courts.

‘Heyyy porky’ Julian shouted as he entered the tennis court. ‘Porky?’ David replied feeling rather offended.

‘working too hard and missing tennis games will do that to you’ Julian replied poking David’s stomach.

David knew he was in the best shape out of all of his mates so laughed it off. However during the game he couldn’t help but notice with a pang of embarrassment that he was much more out of breath than usual and his t-shirt was definitely fitting more snuggly than he would care to admit.

After the game they headed to Jim’s bar. It was the only decent bar around so despite feeling uneasy that he would run into the old man again he didn’t suggest going anywhere else. Thankfully the old man wasn’t there. There was however a very pretty redhead sitting at the end of the barre nursing a glass of wine. He winked at the girl and offered to buy her a drink. She politely declined and a few minutes later moved to a table at the other end of the bar. ‘Losing your touch with the ladies along with your waistline then’ Julian scoffed.

David downed his pint then left the bar, Julien really was insufferable at times.

By the time another week had rolled around, a considerably fatter, greyer and less attractive David was pleased it was Friday. For some strange reason when he arrived early at work he couldn’t remember the code to unlock the door. He tried multiple times but after freezing himself out he had to wait for the next person to arrive. Insultingly, it was Norman, who effortlessly punched in the code and opened the door. ‘Don’t worry old chap, it happens to us all. As you know my memory is terrible. But, working here over 20 years has ingrained this code into my head luckily’

The day went slowly and by finishing time David felt exhausted. His eyes were blurry from looking at the computer all day. ‘I really must get my eyes checked’ David thought and made a mental note to book an appointment tomorrow. On his way out the door he spied Norman heading out. He couldn’t be bothered to listen to him talk about his grandsons’ cricket achievements for the hundredth time that week so held back slightly. Just as he was about to open the door into the café, Norman tripped over hitting the deck pretty hard, his walking stick leaving his hands and sliding two meters away from him.

David made the awful decision at that moment to dive into the men’s loos and pretend he hadn’t noticed Norman. As he peed he did feel slightly guilty but it was worth not having the hassle of dealing with it. Besides, it really was up to the café workers to deal with.

David looked at his reflection despairingly in the hallway mirror of his beautiful home. He had put on at least half a stone in the last two days. How was that even possible? His hair was almost all grey now and had also receded somewhat. Looking at his eye in the mirror he noticed, along with the new crows feet he was sporting, the blurry one seemed to have something stuck in it also. He would definitely ring the optician first thing. Horrified he realised that since he left the house this morning he looked at least fifteen years older.

He heard laughing in the kitchen. Anna; but also a man. Trundling through he was extremely irritated to see his wife sitting at the table with an open bottle of red laughing and joking with some man he didn’t know. ‘Hi Honey’ Although Anna was smiling at him he noticed the momentary jerk of shock at his appearance cross her face.

The man turned around ‘Hi David’ he said and suddenly David recognised this man. How could it be though?

‘I’m not sure we’ve met yet’ the man said holding his hand out to shake David’s. ‘I’m Pip I’m new to the sales department and taking over from Norman for a bit. Did you know he broke his leg tonight on the way out of work? Poor chap! I brought round these papers you forgot to sign before you left’

David looked at Pip mouth agog! Sudden realisation hit him; he knew what was happening now. Pip looked to be in his early forties with a chiselled jaw and rugged stubble. A handsome man and a snappy dresser at that. He had on grey tweed tailored jacket and a flat cap. The flat cap gave it away. It was the old man from Jims bar. However, it seemed that as David had been aging uncontrollably in the past week, the opposite had been happening to the old man ‘or Pip as he was now known.

He shook his hand and Pip pulled him in patted him on the back and whispered into his ear ‘thanks for the gift’

As the night went on David grew increasingly furious with Pip and also Anna for inviting him to stay for tea. The thing that riled him most was that he found he was actually jealous of him. Anna was laughing at his jokes and obviously falling for his rugged good looks whilst David sat there essentially an old, unattractive and invisible compared to Pip.

Eventually, dinner was over and Anna said goodnight to Pip before going to check on their daughter Emily.

David rounded on Pip. ‘How is this possible? You think your so clever stealing my youth and now you’re stealing Normans job, probably working your way up to stealing mine and to top it off you have the cheek to work your way into my home and charm my wife as well! I don’t know who you are or what you’ve done to me but you better undo it RIGHT NOW!!’

‘David! What are you shouting at?’ Anna stood shocked at the top of the stairs.

‘Well, I can see I’ve overstayed my welcome’ said Pip with the same pleasant smirk that hadn’t changed since he was an old man.

Anna gave her apologies to Pip and walked him to the door not before shooting David a warning look.

He watched them walk to the front door but before they got there he realised he was on the floor. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion and all he could feel was the cold kitchen tiles on his sweaty face and pain, the worst pain he had ever felt. He seen Anna and Pip’s worry filled faces rush towards him before he passed out.

David’s eyes blinked open and the light stung. The room eventually came into focus and he had never been so happy to be alive and see Anna sitting on the chair next to him. He noticed that she had a haircut, her long locks were cut into a trendy bob and there was something different about her he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Before he could speak, a man who he soon realised was Pip walked in along with a girl he didn’t recognise who looked to be around the age of ten or eleven.  

‘What happened?’ a strange voice came out of David’s mouth.

‘David you had a heart attack’ Anna replied ‘When we took you to the hospital the doctors also diagnosed you with an extremely rare condition called ‘Werner syndrome’ which makes you age prematurely. Technically you are thirty nine now but your body and mind are that of a ninety year old. In the past few years you have developed Alzheimer’s also so sometimes things are a bit foggy for you.

‘years? What do you mean years? I only collapsed last night.

‘David you’ve been in this care home for seven years now. Anna said softly.

A single tear rolled down his wrinkled cheek and David had a feeling he had heard this all before. He looked over at the girl ‘Emily?’ he asked.

‘yeah dad it’s me’ she replied.

But yesterday she was only four years old. How could this be? A nurse walked in and he heard Anna say ‘it’s not a good day today’ to her. ‘Come on Emily, let’s go and get a coffee and let dad rest for a bit. They smiled at him and left the room.

Pip stayed.

‘I’m sorry it had to come to this David, I really did have high hopes you could turn things around’ Pip said looking genuinely sorry for David.

‘I understand now’ more tears running down his face. ‘I’ve missed out on my whole life! I was too wrapped up in myself to appreciate my family. I thought I was invincible but no one is, well except you clearly.

‘Well unfortunately death wasn’t meant to live life, let alone live your life, no matter how nice it would be’ said Pip.

‘What do you mean?’ asked David.

‘Haven’t you guessed it yet?’ Pip replied. ‘David…I’m death. Death follows us all you see. Most of us don’t need to see me to realise that and know how precious life is. However, on occasion I do have to make myself visible and remind people of it. Of course yours was a harsh lesson but necessary.’

At that moment Pip put his hands on David’s old frail chest and David felt the searing pain hit him once again. He understood and he was ready to meet his maker as they say. He closed his eyes and drifted away.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beeeeep

David opened his eyes to the sound of his alarm clock and a face full of Anna’s long blonde hair. What’s going on now? He thought to himself. He looked at his hands which were free of age spots and his stomach which was missing the donut of fat around it. He woke up Anna. ‘Where’s Pip? What’s going on?’ he said frantically.

‘I think you’ve had a bad dream you muppet’ she smiled and cuddled in closer to him.

‘Thank-you’ he silently prayed. He had been given a second chance at life and this time he would not waste it. Emily bounded in and jumped on the bed. It was so unbelievably good to see her innocent little four year old smiling face.

‘Come on let’s get dressed and go out for pancakes!’ he said. Not wanting to waste another precious moment.

Emily shrieked with excitement and within half an hour they were out the door. Before David closed the car door he froze. Across the road, standing still and staring was the old man in the flat cap.

Death winked knowingly at him and David nodded before closing the car door.