Followed

The second timed it happened we marvelled at the coincidence.

“You bought our flat!” I said on seeing the couple huddled on the doorstep of our three-bedroom house.

They were expecting another child and had outgrown the flat, just like we had done, ten years earlier.

We exchanged and completed on our new home, a splendid five bed roomed house in Brighton, time to move out of London, get some sea air and left our Shadows in our past.

When the kids grew up and left for their own lives, we downsized, over twenty people came to view the house, no one put in the right offer.

It was a late Sunday morning, the garden looked lovely, hyacinths and white roses. The living room was strewn with newspapers and assorted supplements and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee added to the cosy ambience.


Ding Dong.

“Sorry to bother you, but we were just passing and saw the For Sale sign….

She covered her mouth with her hand muting her gasp.

Older, slightly stooped, the grey hair just beginning.

There they were again, our followers, intent on moving into our lives and becoming over familiar with our solicitor.

He was working from home now, just like me, they needed one of the rooms for a den, they were sick of London, yearned for some sea air. We laughed and shook hands and signed on the dotted.

My husband passed away and I decided to go back home, I’d grown up in a tiny village in Hampshire and felt drawn back to my roots.

I nearly didn’t bother putting the bungalow on the market, I knew what would happen and sure enough it did.

They looked slightly nervous this time, probably wondering if exterior forces were indeed at work.

You’d have thought over the years we’d have made friends, but something stops us from getting too intimate.

I don’t want to move again, I’m happy here. It’s small, a grandma’s fairytale cottage, and all mine.

I shall end my days here, but I can tell you one thing for sure, I daren’t reserve a plot in my local cemetery, I’ve always believed that a commitment such as that is for eternity.