On a day of forty-two degrees just over a year ago<\/p>\n
I found a phone on a bench at Avignon TGV<\/p>\n
I tried to call the owner but did not get a reply<\/p>\n
So I settled for a text as I hoped that she was nearby<\/p>\n
I did not receive a reply for six weeks<\/p>\n
And when it arrived I was entertaining friends<\/p>\n
The caller was named Alba and she lived in Toulon<\/p>\n
I told her that I was English and lived in London<\/p>\n
So I agreed that it would be best if I returned the phone by post<\/p>\n
Alba said that she would cover my expenses<\/p>\n
And would send me the full details of her address<\/p>\n
I waived the expenses and waited for her details to arrive<\/p>\n
But she did not contact me as arranged<\/p>\n
Which was puzzling but not out of the ordinary<\/p>\n
As Alba most likely had replaced her mobile phone<\/p>\n
Today I am in Avignon once again to attend a business meeting<\/p>\n
The temperatures are similar to those of my first visit<\/p>\n
I am sitting in the shade on a bench in front of the impressive station<\/p>\n
The mobile phone is in the side pocket of my handbag<\/p>\n
Which is quite ridiculous as the owner has obviously lost interest<\/p>\n
I am waiting to be picked up but caught an earlier train<\/p>\n
So I have some time to kill slowly in the sun<\/p>\n
But I am uneasy as I feel that I am being watched<\/p>\n
By a raven girl who is sitting on another bench<\/p>\n
Reading a damaged Michael Houellebecq novel<\/p>\n
She is glancing at me with an increased regularity<\/p>\n
It is a remote supposition but I feel that this raven girl<\/p>\n
Once owned the mobile phone that lies dormant in my handbag<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a day of forty-two degrees just over a year ago I found a phone on a bench at Avignon TGV I tried to call the owner but did not get a reply So I settled for a text as I hoped that she was nearby I did not receive a reply for six weeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}