Walking down the hospital corridor with my friend’s Keepcup, I’m looking forward to fresh air and sunshine on my skin as much as a good coffee. A thick, blood-filled tube emerging from my nightie seems obvious. Draining from my breast to a bottle I’ve stashed in a black bag that hangs from my shoulder, maybe it’s not so obvious. Anyway, this is a hospital so people wearing pyjamas with tubes hanging from them are normal café customers. Medical staff in front of me in the queue are as unperturbed as the barista.
It was thoughtful of my friend to bring Keepcups when she brought coffees yesterday and leave me one. She knows that I avoid landfill. A coffee is enticing, a reason for a walk. A nurse had suggested it too. A sense of freedom and good health, normality, in the simple act of walking for a coffee.
Artificial grass is at least green even though it’s plastic. The joy of being outdoors. I wonder about walking to the park across the road. Maybe I’d need different clothes to go there. Maybe tomorrow.