Member-only story
LONELINESS
I Had the Quantity, Now I’m Looking for the Quality
I learned a lot about others at our school reunion. But I learned the most about myself
Officially, we were meeting to celebrate our tenth anniversary of leaving school. Unofficially, we were all there to determine if we were the only failures.
As in school, there were the over-punctual, those who arrived with the clock strike, and those who came hours too late and were celebrated for it. Nothing had changed.
And yet nobody could wait to ask the one question we all wanted to ask but didn’t want to hear.
“So, what are you up to these days?”
It was inserted between hasty sips of the aperitif, two forkfuls of the starter, during the main course, and in the queue for the loo. Every time someone joined the group, or you changed seats yourself, you heard this question as the echo of a long-lost prophecy.
“What are you doing in life?”
I sat on the bench like a patient in the waiting room (apparently absent-minded but listening) and watched the guests move around like playing musical chairs.
“Shall we include you in our conversation?” asked the man opposite me, who I’m sure I’d never seen…
