'DON’T MIND ME'

Went in the front entrance to the flats and stood behind a woman who was using crutches and had only one leg, the right one. I wondered if the loss of the left was drug related and remembered what my friend had told me after he’d visited in hospital a man who’d just had his leg amputated because of drug use. He said, ‘he looked at me and said, “it’s not a game anymore is it?”’
This went through my mind as the lift came down the door opened we got in, her first then me, when a man appeared round the corner and got in too.
The woman asked me, ‘what floor?’ and I noticed she only pressed mine and one other button.
‘How are you?’ she asked the man with two carrier bags I couldn’t tell what was in, who looked rough, red faced, a black eye a few days old and had come with him a strong smell of alcohol.
‘Hell...shit,’ he said.
‘What’s happened, what’s wrong?’
‘I’ll tell you in a minute,’ he said.
A short pause.
'Don’t mind me,’ I said and we travelled the rest of the way in silence.