The Farewell Gathering

“I don’t know why I just don’t listen to that inner voice of mine”, muttered Annie, hopefully quietly enough to not draw attention to herself. She had thought this gathering a terrible idea and it was only a sense of obligation that had her going along. She was pretty certain that no one was paying her any mind or had any idea how she really felt at that moment.

Discomfort

She stood just outside fairy light bedecked bar. They weren’t the delicate white twinkling lights the name fairy lights suggest, unfortunately. Garish flashing lights in red, blue and a particularly nauseating green cast a ghastly pallor over the lively groups of mostly young people. An air of fake jollity hung over them. Horrible grating karaoke backed by a bored and not particularly competent live band, drifted out of the space. Clattering of dishes and laughter provided a further discordant soundtrack.. Annie wished, yet again , that she just wasn’t there.

Senior Management

She knew she was expected to put up with and shut up about this situation, but she could feel she was about to lose it.

Although she hadn’t wanted to be there , being the “matriarch” of the office and the only one who hadn’t downed obscene amounts of alcohol, she felt duty bound to look after some of the younger ones, who were definitely worse for wear. She had felt an obligation to attend this seasonal farewell train wreck and normally she liked a party, but this was a feeble excuse for one.

Exit Plan

She had called an Uber, and was going to take one of her friends home with her. They could sleep it off in one of the kid’s bedrooms, one of them was bound to be out.

Waiting for the Uber she watched the rest of them carrying on, it dawned on her that no matter how well they had got on in the office and felt like a tight team, the end of the project was the end. The end of their association.

Workplace Connection

Sure they might remain “connected “on Facebook but so what? Facebook was useful for networking and as far as Annie was concerned not for ACTUAL friendships. It seemed to be more of a hotbed of trouble and fighting than anything else.

Abandon ship!

She pondered just walking off. Take the train. Actually she really just wanted to walk off. She seriously considered it but the stupid little bar was situated in some out of the way alleyway. She wasn’t too sure in which direction she’d need to walk to get to the station.

The Uber turned up quite quickly a bored unshaven guy in his 40s was the driver of a nondescript SUV. Annie went to check on her friend and put her into the car. Apparently she was really unwell but had settled down a bit. Some males in the group were “looking after” her mainly by behaving like drunken 14 year olds at a blue light disco. Annie gently prised her away. She didn’t look unhappy but she didn’t look in control either.

Upset Plan

Just as she was about to sit beside Patricia, for that was her friends’ name, two of most loudmouthed office juniors pushed past her and got in the Uber. There was no more room, for Annie to sit with her so just to make an even crappier evening worse, she had to sit next to the Uber driver. He looked at her speculatively and looked ready to launch into an unwanted conversation. “Are these your children?” What the hell?

Already there was a hideous retching noise emanating from the back seat of the car. She did not want to leave her vulnerable colleague unprotected, she did have a soft spot for her, but she had no time for any of this “drunken young people stuff”

Enough!

“No they are not my children, they are nothing to do with me. Annie showed the driver a scrap of paper…”but the young lady in the purple jacket needs taken to this address, I’ll pay for that journey. As for the others, I don’t care. They can pay for their own transportation.”

She thought for a moment, then in a spur of the moment decision she jumped out of the Uber

“Hey, ma’am what about payment?”

“I told you I’ve got it.. “she yelled over her shoulder

Escaped

She now had to try and beat that Uber home, although to be fair her long suffering husband would take care of things … she fired off a text.

Aha, she noticed a yellow cab just across the intersection and in the first piece of good luck this evening she also saw she had a pedestrian green light…

“Hallelujah”, she thought as she took off across the road.

She had the green light, as did vehicles turning left, it was on them to pay attention and give way to pedestrians…

The SUV Uber driver didn’t.

The last evening of her life had been really crappy.

Her last fragment of thought was I knew I should not have come …. The kids!

Her own kids,that is, not other people’s.