{"id":761,"date":"2021-03-18T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=761"},"modified":"2021-03-29T11:07:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T11:07:30","slug":"whats-the-point-of-living-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/whats-the-point-of-living-anymore\/761\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Point of Living Anymore?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Government had lost its way.  No matter which way it tried to turn, the virus has it in a pincer movement. It is just too depressing to watch the news anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I received the shielding letter, my morale started to go downhill.  Overnight my freedom and my independence had been taken away.  It had proved easy enough to order food deliveries online and also my prescriptions, but the human element interaction was missing.  How I longed to go outdoors, or hug my daughter and my grandson, or see my mates down the local.  I felt that my human rights had been infringed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A knock on the window brought me back from my dark thoughts.  It was the new neighbour\u2019s son, dressed up as Robin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my birthday, I\u2019ve brought you some of my Batman cake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMmm, chocolate – my favourite.  That\u2019s verykind of you, could you leave it on the doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin lingered and then said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cMy mummy says you are under house arrest, you must have been very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not too sure I\u2019d call it very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was grounded for a week after I kicked the cat!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a grandson around your age, what\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Robin, silly.  What\u2019s yours?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m Batman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll prove it to you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to the closet and pulled out my raincoat and placed it on my shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a cape!  Do you have a Batmobile as well?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s at the garage being repaired after I crashed it chasing villains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOoo, wait till I tell mum that Batman\u2019s our neighbour, the best birthday present ever!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ran off back to his house. I felt myself starting to smile, he had certainly been a tonic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, he was back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMum\u2019s asking if you want any shopping?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t really, but with such a good opportunity to speak to anyone, I said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I could do with a few things, I\u2019ll just write them down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they were gone, I hunted for something that I could give as a birthday present.  I\u2019d have to make a card as well.  I found a torch that was practically new. With a black sharpie I drew a bat on the lens. The cardboard side of my cornflakes packet made a good bat-shaped card. I left them on the doorstep for Robin to find when they brought my shopping.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their voices outside brought me to the window, I heard Robin\u2019s mum say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cCuthbert, come on, I\u2019ve got to get lunch ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c Cor! Mum, look at this\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor kid I thought, trying not to snigger, no wonder he calls himself Robin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later on, as I was putting the goods away, I found a hand written note in the carrier bag –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please feel free to phone me if you need anything<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0001240556732<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt like I had been given a lifeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government had lost its way.  No matter which way it tried to turn, the virus has it in a pincer movement. It is just too depressing to watch the news anymore.  When I received the shielding letter, my morale started to go downhill.  Overnight my freedom and my independence had been taken away.  It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A new flash fiction from SWANSEA WRITERS: \"What\u2019s the Point of Living Anymore?\"\n\n#FLASHFICTION ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[379,423],"tags":[314],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-march-2021-lost","tag-lockdown"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-ch","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}