A care worker arrived, an Albanian with family and extended family to feed in Tirana. He had little to grin about, but George’s smile was infectious.
“Saturday night, George,” he reminded his favourite resident.
George turned to his ‘foreign friend’, for want of another term, and winked. “You’re the best Armend.”
The Albanian’s grin widened. “Flattery gets you everywhere. Just remember, you owe me two games of chess this week.”
“Let’s make it the best of three,” said George, tossing aside the blanket covering him and revealing he was outfitted for an evening jaunt, contrary to house regulations.
Armend retreated to the monitoring room where he switched off certain cameras for the five minutes it took George to shuffle down to Ellie’s room. Who would have thought it? An old flame of fifty years ago ending up in the same care home.
George rapped gently, three times, on her door, their ‘secret’ knock.
Ellie answered immediately, dressed in flat shoes and her best attire. Her grey hair was fluffed up from the Friday visit of the coiffeur, and her nails were a vivid red, just as George remembered from half a century ago.
“You look beautiful,” said George, offering Ellie his arm.
Side-by-side, the couple sauntered down the corridor to the emergency exit and waited until the flashing alarm light went off, overridden by the compassionate Albanian.
Seconds later they were outside, in the balmy summer air, exchanging sweet nothings. Then to the nearby park, where they sat on a bench, not only reminiscing, but tentatively exploring their future together, wondering whether to make their relationship more public, more permanent, anxious as to what their children and grandchildren would say if they announced they planned tying the knot.
The next port of call was Carol’s Café, where their usual table was reserved. Coffee, cake and an old film streamed just for them, on the large flatscreen, despite grumbles from some youths wanting to watch the football.
That night, Ellie took the window seat, George the aisle seat, so that he could slip cautiously to one knee and make their engagement official while Carol filmed the event on her phone and the youths cheered.
“Of course, I’ll marry you,” said Ellie, eliciting even more raucous cheering.
On the way home, passing by the petrol station, where Stan, the manager was outside inflating a customer’s tyres.
“You two look a little bushed,” he said, as he always did. “Can I give you a lift home?”
“That would be most kind of you, Stanley,” said Ellie.
At exactly midnight, as the missing-in-action couple walked up the path at the back of the care home, Armend turned off the rear exit alarm and the relevant CCTV cameras to prevent their absence being flagged. Five minutes afterwards, he was back on his nightly rounds.
George was sitting in his armchair in the rec room, smiling up at the TV.