Laura's eyes are shining.
She laughs softly.
“I read somewhere that laughter is close to crying”
“Yeah?”
“Like now
,” she wipes her eyes with
the back of her hand, “crying with laughter”.
She pauses to blow her nose before continuing.
“Stupid memories...” Laura trails off as she tries and fails
to throw her scrunched up tissues into a bin on the far side of the room. “It was funny though wasn’t it?”
There’s another pause in the conversation until she looks up
prompting a reply.
“Yeah, it was funny, the way your mum was looking around. She was so confused”.
Laura's laugh returns.
“She asked me who I was talking to and I said, ‘There’s only
the three of us in here… me, myself and I.’”
“Then she asked you which one you were talking to…”
“I was talking to myself.”
“You really should try to kick that habit.”
Laura's grin broadens as she turns to the emptiness beside
her.
“You know I can’t. You’re the only one that understands.”