Free Losing You by Susan Lewis

transport, because she’d caught the bus to the garage earlier without checking first if the car was ready. If it hadn’t been she’d be in the queue now with at least a dozen others, having to heft her shopping home on a Green Line.
    Sorry that she didn’t have the courage to offer someone a lift, she continued on to Lauren’s Peugeot, loaded in her bags, and was just returning her trolley when she spotted Mrs Dempster amongst those in the pensioners’ transport queue. Not allowing herself a moment’s hesitation, she quickly went up to her, saying, ‘Hello, do you remember me? I live on the same street as you, at number forty.’
    ‘Of course I do, dear,’ the old lady smiled, her words coming out of her blue lips in ragged puffs of white air. ‘Emma isn’t it, and your lovely daughter, Lauren.’
    ‘That’s right. Can I give you a lift? I’m going straight home.’
    ‘Oh my goodness me, this is my lucky day,’ Mrs Dempster chuckled delightedly. ‘If you’re sure it’s no trouble ...’
    ‘Absolutely not. It would be my pleasure. Here, let me take your bags.’
    A few minutes later, bundled into the front of the small car with the heater going full pelt and the wipers slicing back and forth, Emma steered them out into the traffic where nothing was going anywhere fast. ‘I’m afraid we’ve hit the rush hour,’ she commented with a sigh.
    ‘Oh well, I don’t suppose there’s any avoiding it. I hope you’re not in a hurry.’
    ‘No no, not at all, it’ll just be nice to get home and into the warm.’
    ‘Oh, that it will. I nearly never left the house today it was so bitter out, but I’m glad I did now, because if I hadn’t the angels would have missed me. Did you see what happened?’
    ‘It was lovely,’ Emma smiled.
    Mrs D was beaming. ‘There’s a thing, isn’t it?’ she sighed happily. ‘I don’t never win nothing, me, and then suddenly this woman comes out of the blue, and I’m being chosen to have everything in my trolley paid for. I hardly knew what to say. That’s like giving me seventy quid . Can you imagine having that much you can just hand it over to a stranger? I can’t wait to tell our Alan, he’ll be tickled to death, he will.’
    ‘Alan’s your son?’
    ‘That’s right. He lives up Gloucester way, but he knows about these angels, because he was reading it in the paper when he came down with his family at Christmas. He reckoned it could be a sort of marketing thing that some rich person’s going to end up making a fortune out of, and I suppose he could be right, but you could hardly begrudge them that if they’re being so generous with everyone, could you?’
    ‘I suppose not,’ Emma agreed. ‘I’d love to know who’s behind it, wouldn’t you?’
    ‘Oh yes, especially after today, just so’s I could say thank you. Actually, I’ve already decided what I’m going to do with my little windfall. In fact, it couldn’t have come at a better time, because our Amy – that’s my youngest granddaughter – is going to be twenty-one in March. I can get her something a bit special now. She’ll like that. We should all have something special when we turn twenty-one, don’t you think?’
    Resisting the urge to squeeze this dear old lady’s hand, Emma found herself thinking of her mother and how she’d probably do the same, and put Lauren and Harry’s two children at the top of her list of beneficiaries should she happen to enjoy an unexpected bonus. Phyllis wasdefinitely a lot better in a grandmother’s role than she’d ever been as a mother.
    ‘I can’t help wondering how random these selections really are,’ Emma said to Polly on the phone later. ‘Do you reckon whoever’s behind it is in touch with social services, or Age Concern, or someone who can point them in the right direction?’
    ‘Absolutely no idea,’ Polly replied, ‘except if you go back over the list of winners I don’t think you’ll find everyone is really hard up or about to be