‘Life seemed so much simpler back then’ Edith said as she lifted her dreary head to glance out the window. Lenny quickly nodded his head to signal his reply and continued reading the daily newspaper.

‘Don’t you think Lenny?...Lenny?...Don’t you think?’

‘Edith’ Lenny sighed as he took a deep breath, ‘Its not in our hands anymore dear. The past has come and gone and soon we will one day. Can you please not go on about it anymore?’. Lenny lifted himself out of his old brown rocking chair. ‘I need to have a lie down’.

Edith looked at Lenny quite shocked, she hadn’t expect for her comment to receive such a forceful answer, but she realised he was right. They were both now in their late eighties and the chances of either of them living for a few more years was doubtful.

‘Very doubtful’ Edith said under her breath.

She gazed around her tiny living room which was filled with so many memories, memories which she thought about and which filled her head everyday. An array of photographs filled the room, along with Lenny medals he had received through the war, the scent of flowers filled the room from the numerous vases filled with roses, carnations and sweet peas. The bookshelfs were book-ridden and they contained such subjetcs as gardening, the war, cooking and knitting. The wallpaper looked as though it hadn’t been changed for years, the old gramophone sat on top of the black and white television set which sat alone in the corner. But thats the way she liked her living room to be, it reminded her so much of the life she had once had before, before old age caught up with her and when looking though the window seemed like a whole other world.

Lenny and herself never set foot outside the front gate anymore. Expect to retrieve the mail and attend to the overgrown vines that entangled and entwined the fence. They have no other need to go outside the safe existence of their house and garden. They have no family to visit or family to visit them. Its strange, Edith thought to herself, we are both so old yet no one is younger than us, maybe its a better life after this one.

‘If only you were still around Milton’, Edith whimpered as she picked up the photograph of Milton that was sitting alone on top of the old gramophone. Milton was Edith and Lennys son, he was a great kid, Edith remembered, full of life and engery a typical little boy. But that was all he ever got to become, a little boy.

‘I guess someone needed you up there more than your Daddy and myself needed you down here sonny.’ A tear trickled down her now old and wrinkled check as she placed the photograph carefully back into position. Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the telephone ring loudly. She quickly, as quickly as an old woman can, reached for the phone in the kitchen so it wouldn’t wake Lenny up from his sleep’.

‘Why did I ever think it was for me?’ Edith asked herself...wrong number...She remembers when the telephone would constantly ring for her, she would chat for hours with her friends and family. Now the only time it rang was once in a blue moon, usually it would be the wrong number or a salesperson.

She strolled back over to the lounge room and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the little mirror that sat above the settee. ‘How time changes you’ she thought as she carefully studied her reflection. Her long flowing blond hair had turned a shade of grey and was now short and straight which seemed to stick to her head. Edith ran her now weak hand through her plastered hair. Her hand appeared to show her age more than any of her other features. The sparkling ruby wedding ring on her left hand was the only object that seemed to give it life. She searched for the face of the young attractive woman she used to be 60 years ago, but all that stared back at her was her old deterring reflection, memories could only remind her of how she used to look. She recalls a saying everyone and even her herself used to say when she was young. ‘Life is so short, make the most of it while you can.’ Edith laughed at the ridiculous comment, life sure didn’t seem that short after eighty years of living, everyday just seems to get longer and longer. She startled herself as she heard the bedroom door squeak open and Lenny’s footsteps stomp down the hallway. Edith walked back over to her seat next to the outside world window. She watched as Lenny, with his daily newspaper under his arm, ease himself into his rocking chair and he began reading his newspaper, probably for the seventh time.

‘Were on a carousel’ she thought to herself as she stared out the window. ‘When will this ride ever end?’