Yesterday Sylvia had called twice, one of the messages was brilliant, a little window into the life of a stranger. "It's 10.27 and you're either out of the house already or you're not up yet, while I am here tucked up in bed, I have had my breakfast..." a perky sounding Sylvia tells Denise, the call is signed off "Love Sylvia" as if she's ending a letter to her.
I wonder does Denise check in on Sylvia regularly? Maybe she calls her because she's not heard from her for a while not knowing she's returning a call from Sylvia that she never actually received because the message is falling on confused ears in our living room? Does Denise pick her up on time or is Sylvia left waiting in the cold at the end of the road, never to be collected because she told the wrong answer machine that she was going out to wait for her?
Poor Denise could easily get a reputation as being the unreliable type who has no regard for her elders, her elders who misdial phone numbers.
There's something about these messages, which are really nothing but a voice inside an answering machine, that I find desperately sad. I don't know who Sylvia is but I know when the day that I realise we've not had a message for Denise for a long time comes I'll feel a little bit sad that she's gone.
