The blue car

 “We are in the Truman show,” the Long Suffering Husband pointed out about a year ago.

I don’t know if you remember the film but it was about someone who was in a reality TV show. They had followed him since birth and he had no idea, except when he started to notice that the same things happened over and over again. I always wondered how he managed to get to his 30s without noticing before but here we are in our 50s only just noticing it ourselves.

Every time we leave the house an old man in a blue car drives slowly past. We only noticed it at first because the dog has become old stubborn and possibly a little senile. 

During lockdown the dog enjoyed walking down the centre of roads. It was his place, where he was meant to be, the king of his own little street. If we saw people (which was rare because everyone was hiding)they would watch him and make comments on his cuteness. He was having his own parade. Now that cars are back on the road  he doesn’t  seem to want to give up the habit. Luckily, we live on a quiet street and so outside the house he can usually still trot down the centre, as though he owns it. We leave the house and he positions himself in the centre of the road, trip-trotting along until the blue car arrives. 

And it arrives every single time.

You could argue that as most people are creatures of habit we walk the dog at the same time and we are just going at the time he leaves for work but we aren’t those people. With age, the dog has his own timetable for walking and being a dog, he can’t tell the time. Also, as he’s got less mobile we have been walking on our own more often and the blue car still appears.

We have been laughing about it for a while.

Last Wednesday, the LSH was playing golf and I walked into town. There was no sign of the blue car and I rejoiced.

“It’s not my show, then,” I said to myself. 

However, when I got near town and it was time to cross the zebra crossing, a car stopped just before I got there This is a rare occurrence and so I looked up. It was the blue car, with the same man driving. I tried to smile and wave but he looked right through me.

Then Saturday evening, there was no blue car as we left. 

“They know we’re onto them,” I told the LSH and we laughed.

However, on the way home a smaller grey car drove past.

“It’s him!” the LSH said. “They must be trying to throw us off the scent.”

I wonder if he will be there today. I’d quite like him to have a rest because it must be exhausting having to be there every time I leave the house. It’s a shame he couldn’t have been given someone who isn’t a little claustrophobic.