Cloud Hands

On Friday a friend of mine and I were sipping cappuccinos in the late afternoon sun outside a cafe in Brighton; nice. We used the opportunity to bang on to each other about our respective ails. He has had and operation recently on a knee and is still limping, I am recovering from the periodic vertigo thing I have from time to time.

One of the topics we touched on for light relief was that of the vehicle parked at the side of the road in front of us. A normal looking transit van except that it had "nice" wheels and appeared to have handlebars instead of a steering wheel. Indeed, leering across more closely at it, I saw it had no driver's seat.

Half an hour or so later, we had moved inside as it become chilly and were both facing the floor-to-ceiling window that stretched the length of the place. An electric wheel chair appeared from the right. On board was a guy who I would guess was in his forties, he looked like a younger Stephen Hawking, his head was supported by a headrest at the back and on the side. Also he seemed unable to keep his limbs still. He was alone. My companion and I said nothing to each other, we both guessed what was about to happen but at the same time couldn't quite believe it. The back doors of the van opened and our friend (at the second attempt) parked on the lift that had dropped down. Up and in he went, the van doors calmly closed. A couple of minutes later he appeared in the front and then spent another while wrestling with his safety belts. Eventually the vehicle started up and our mystery man powered away, (no easing hesitantly into the traffic for him) to his next appointment.

(Adrian and his mate nil, God one).