DOOLALLY

Well you know the old saying. What goes up to the Isle of Man, must come back from the Isle of Man. And for that reason I’m in Sainsbury’s car park again, waiting for my parents’ coach to arrive.

It’s late afternoon this time, rather than early morning, so considerably more people around.

The coach is late. My Mum texted to say they were running late because a woman had gone ‘doolally’. ‘Not me’ she added in brackets. I still don’t know what this means.

Long shadows for a hot evening. Cars squeak by, catching the sun with metal and glass. I’m opposite the petrol station watching them fill up. A guy in a white t-shirt, dark shorts and long white socks grabs a hose. He’s wearing sliders. That look is cool nowadays apparently.

Deolali was a town in India, where the British army set up a staging post for soldiers who were on their way home. Doolally tap was slang for a sort of excited fever men would get at the thought of returning. It might have been very fitting then if a lady on the coach had indeed gone doolally - overwhelmed with the idea of being homeward bound. I can identify.

When did cars get so shiny? I’m sure they weren’t always these glistening sleek machines. Didn’t they used to be dull boxes of white and brown and blue? Some of these are blinding as they pass by. And big too! There goes a BMW thingy, a Rav and a Kia Sportage - all in a mad rush to get somewhere on this warm afternoon. A massive European winnebago just pulled in as well - the i-821 elegance. Does a camper really need its own satellite dish?

They’re going to be a while I think. Time for me to mooch around Sainsbury’s.

The world seems busier, hotter, dustier than it did the other morning. That fresh pink sky is hazy blue and cloudless; the sun is burning shadows across the hot tarmac, and the air that was so vibrant and alive is now still and sultry as though building into a thunderstorm.

It’s not unpleasant, this staging post, this Deolali. I guess I’m just longing for home, for the freshness of a new morning and the hope of life that comes with the journey home - and in more ways than one.