Stumbling into Mischief

Twelve

They reached the hospital at 11:14.

Richard parked outside and waited as Clare sorted herself out. She was doing some strange woman things.

Richard hated hospitals. He had been to a few in his lifetime - when his mum died, when his dad died, and when he broke his leg - and most of his memories of them were bad. To Richard, hospitals seemed to be the place of death and pain. There wasn't anything good about them.

However, Richard's hospital thoughts were suddenly cut off when he noticed something moving in the rear-view mirror.

"Oh no." He mumbled.

There was a familiar old woman hobbling towards the car.

Clare stopped whatever it was that she had been doing for the past ten minutes, and looked at him.

"What?"

"That woman... she's- she's my neighbour." He whispered, rubbing his chin. "Oh god. Do you think she's seen us?"

"I don't know. Mayb-"

"We'll have to hide until she passes."

"What? Why?"

"She doesn't stop talking."

Richard watched as Clare's lips curved into a cheeky smile.

"Don't be so rude! We'll have to get out." She replied, somewhat mischievously. Richard didn't like the sound of that.

"And make a quick dash to the hospital?" He suggested.

"No!" Clare giggled, opening the door. "Come on, Richard!"

Richard shook his head, whining, "Clare! You don't understand!"

But Clare ignored and got out, closing the door behind.

Richard sat there for a moment, grunting to himself, before slowly getting out too. He kept his head down with the hope that his neighbour was a little bit blind.

But, of course, she wasn't.

"Richard? Richard! I knew it was you!" Flora Johnson, his neighbour, called.

Richard sighed to himself. "Great."

She'd embarrass him in front of Clare, no doubt.

Richard heard Clare giggling beside him, and turned to her with a frown.

"This is your fault."

"Hey, I'd like to meet her. We're not in any kind of rush."

"Don't tell her that."

Clare giggled again, nudging his arm. "She looks like one of those sweet little old ladies."

"Looks can be deceiving." Richard muttered under his breath, watching as his neighbour stopped in front of them.

"Good morning, Richard!" She chirped, leaning against her walking stick. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

Richard smiled politely. "Well we can't stop, Mrs Johnson. Very busy-"

Clare stepped on his foot, and he gave her a glare.

"Ah, so who's this lovely young lady?" Mrs Johnson questioned.

Richard continued to glare at Clare, mumbling, "My colleague, Clare Bren-"

Mrs Johnson shuffled closer to Clare. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen Richard with a woman before." She said. "I don't know why. He's such a lovely man. He always takes my bins out for me."