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Invisible<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Pamela Thomas<\/em><\/p>\n Cheryl’s dog died yesterday, scruffy thing. He made it to fifteen Cheryl works in the Odeon, the one on Douglas road Her shift starts and she drags her mop with a heavier heart than most days She looks over as Linda ushers two old dears to their seats She blinks a few times to stop the tears. Her eyes were tired of blinking She puts her mop and bucket back and grabs her coat to leave Invisible by Pamela Thomas Cheryl’s dog died yesterday, scruffy thing. He made it to fifteen But no-one asked how she was. They never do. So no-one knows…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":13922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
But no-one asked how she was. They never do. So no-one knows
It was her fortieth birthday too. No-one knew that either, the usual routine
Even if she did say, no one would care she doesn\u2019t suppose<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t intend to stay so long, been there ten years now
Never had a day sick. Apart from once in 2018 when it snowed
She did try to make it, but her flimsy sand-shoes wouldn\u2019t allow.<\/p>\n
Her forehead soon sweating, she shoves her glasses back on her shiny round face
She spots some lads loitering at the pick and mix and watches to make sure they pay
She wonders what she\u2019d do if they didn\u2019t and decides, probably nothing. Just in case<\/p>\n
She briefly wonders if they\u2019re sisters or maybe lifelong mates
Linda is a steward. She doesn\u2019t mop, she\u2019s too pretty and petite
Cheryl involuntarily touches the wiry hair on her double chin. What a disgrace,<\/p>\n
Her hands push the mop, red raw from years of bleach and neglect
Maybe she could get a manicure? Who you? She heard. What was she thinking?
It\u2019s funny how no one noticed how much she\u2019d blinked that day, but what did she expect?<\/p>\n
No-one really noticed she\u2019d gone. No-one really noticed the end
They never saw Cheryl again. They didn\u2019t ask why, so never thought to grieve
Cheryl’s dog died yesterday. No-one cared. They didn\u2019t even pretend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"