Seeing Alex

Yesterday, out the front of the Co-Op, I ran into Alex.
I'd seen him earlier on, while I'd been sitting in the Como Lounge drinking coffee.
He'd been walking past with his black labrador and I was busy talking to someone so I hadn't been able to run out to speak to him.
But now, out in the street, I was so pleased to see him that I stopped and gave him a hug.

'Mate,' he said, 'what are you doing, how are you?'
Alex had always called me mate, or cobber, or Sheila, and always in an Australian accent.
'I'm good,' I said, smiling a lot at him.
'Aw, Sheila it's bloody good to see you,'
'You too,' I told him, because it really was.
Because Alex had the biggest smile of almost anyone I know.
Alex and I had worked together in the call center, and it was often Alex's smile in the morning that had made the days of answering phones tolerable.
'Are you still at, uh....what's it called.., tattooing?'
I told him that yes, I was.
'Are you still at the supermarket?' I said.
He said he was and that he liked it because it was just a 'hop, skip and a jump' from home.
'How's um, how's um....Cathy?' Alex asked me, referring to the wife I'd had when we had worked together at the call center.
'Alex,' I said, smiling and frowning, 'we got divorced, like...3 years ago,'
'Nooooooo,' said Alex, 'Really?'
'Yes,' I said, smiling.
'Geez,' he said, 'sorry about that, mate,'
'Yeh, so was I at the time,' I said, and Alex and I both laughed.
'How are your girls?' I asked him.
'They're the light of my life, the light of my life,' and saying it he smiled even more.
'How's, um, what's your step-daughter's name?'
'Maddie,' I said, 'yeh, she's good, she really good. She's at university,'
'Bloody hell,' he said, 'they grow up fast,'
Then I leaned down to pat the dog, which was looking up at Alex with adoration.
'How's your, you know, your condition?' I said, looking up at him.
Alex had been in a very bad motorcycle accident when he was a young adult and he had nearly died and as a result he had a recurring condition that caused some difficulty in the way he lived his life.
'Yeh,' he said, 'funny you should ask that. it was all fine until last week when I had an episode and then, ...well...you know,'
'Oh, shit,' I said, 'bummer,'
'Yeh, well, what can you do, Sheila?,' he said smiling.
Then he said- 'You look as cool as ever, you do. You always were,'
I laughed and and stood up and told him that I wasn't cool, that I was a bit of a bumbling mess, really, and that he was the cool one and that he looked great and happy and that I was really, really happy to have seen him.
And then, standing there in the Witney High Street, him holding his dog on a leash and me with my hands in my pockets, smiling at each other, I had that feeling you get when someone is made as genuinely happy by seeing you as you are by seeing them.
And it was, in the truest sense of the word, wonderful.

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