You're never too old for you tube

Elinor was lonely. So very lonely. She was also bored. So very very bored. She knew some people regarded her as lucky and she supposed she was lucky, in a way. After all she still had her health, no something to be sniffed at with her age. She had her own flat, enough money to pay the bills and some leftover for ‘fun’. She was able to get out, although she only ever went out twice a week to her local old foggy groups, everyone there seemed so old. It was just so depressing, she did not feel that old although she supposed her age told a different story.

She knew that her children were all worried about her spending so much time alone and had arranged for her to go to these old people groups to meet up with people her own age. ‘Moping is just not you mother, you love meeting people” they kept saying. True, she didn't want to be sitting around the house, brooding and bored and yet what else is there now? She had once thought old age would be fun with her entertaining friends just like the good old days. Jimmy should be here; why did he have to die? He was supposed to live, they were supposed to be happy and have fun together when they were old. To do all the things they never got around to when they were younger. Now they never would.

Today Elinor had gone to a local old people’s coffee morning and met Holly who had been volunteering. Holly appeared so young, so vibrant and interesting. She also appeared interested in Elinor, which was a novelty nowadays. Elinor could not remember the last time anyone had shown an interest in her. So Elinor had told her a little, just a few snippets to test the water. It could not have gone any better. Elinor had felt herself begin to preen, her feathers feeling brighter and more fluffy like when she was young. It was intoxicating. She wanted more.

Before Holly had left she had asked whether Elinor would like to speak to Holly’s ‘followers’ about her life. Elinor had felt so confused. Holly had tried to explain, but there had not much time with everyone leaving. However it appeared that there are people on the internet who ‘follow’ Holly on some kind of channel and communicate with her. When Elinor had got back home and after she had sit still for a while to bask on her day in the spotlight, she had got her tablet and had researched this ‘'YouTube’ on the internet.

Oh goodness me what she had found! All the people who watched these films and now Holly wanted Elinor to talk to the world about her life. The preening intensified. She had not felt this glossy, beautiful and wanted since…. she could not remember, maybe not since she was young which felt so far away. And now people could be interested her and her life. She wanted this so badly her hands began to itch.

But how to explain to the family? What would they say? They might did not understand. They were coming around later to check on her before Niles and Cassandra’s holiday. Elinor will explain and make them understand.

“I’m sorry mum, but I thought you just said that you are going to talk about your early life on YouTube. But that can't be right.” Cassandra nervously trilled.

“"Why is that funny? Or strange? Holly said that her followers will be interested in me. And you are always saying that I need to get out more and make friends and get to know the modern way of doing things blah blah blah!”

“"Yes mother. But well over YouTube? People on the internet can be horrid and mean. We just don’t want you to get hurt. I’m only thinking of you. Anyway what would father say? He wanted us to to look after you.”

“"Your dad could be overprotective. But I’ll think more about it if that would make you happy.”

Looks of relief passed like fast motorcars over Nile and Cassandra ‘s faces, quick and dirty. They soon began talking about their holiday and after promises of postcards, gifts and phone calls the couple left in a sweep of air kisses.

Once in their car Cassandra turned to Nile and hissed
“"Nile we must speak with Ian and Helen now. You call them while I drive.”
Phone calls were made and it was agreed to meet tomorrow in their favourite coffee shop .

Following much perfume, aftershave and many air kisses the couples each sat in their usual seats near the window, a favourite place in which they would be able to see and be seen. Their indulgent coffee orders in front of them.

“I do hope that they’ve got the foam to the right temperature, I noticed a new girl completing my order and I need it to be at just the right temperature otherwise my hazelnut shot does not have the right taste.” Helen complained before taking a quick sip. “Hmm, I suppose it’s alright.” She said grudgingly.

“"So. What are we going to do about mother? We can’t let her go talking to all and sundry about she got up to in her youth. What if people make connections between her and us? We would become a laughing stock!” Niles hissed.

“"Do we know what she is actually going to say? Maybe we could be censor her? Or write the script? Mum’s not completely unreasonable.” Ian asked

“"Censor mother? You know she’ll never go for that. She’ll claim that she forgot, or got carried away or something and she’ll do it anyway. Do you remember parent’s evening?” Niles asked towards Helen. Helen shuddered slightly into the coffee she had continued to consume with gusto.

“"She would waft around wearing arty large patterned scarfs, greating each teacher she saw with air kisses and talk very loudly about everything we had done at home. Christ Niles do you remember once she almost shouted that you were unable to do that test because of your nerves and that you’d been ‘trotting off to the toilet every two minutes, so I simply had to keep him off. His poor bum was raw!’” Helen imitated the tones of Elinor.

“"Where was your dad when this was happening?” asked Cassandra giggling slightly at the image of her husband.

“"Father was normally two steps behind laughing, although if she got too bad he would step in and say ‘that’ll do Ellie’, that was normally enough to stop mother. He was often the only one who could stop her when she got going.”

“"What do you think she’ll talk about if she does this internet interview? If it’s not too long she may not have time to say anything too embarrassing.”

“"Maybe one of us can say we need to be around to make sure that mum is not being exploited or something like that and then we can make sure that everything is alright. Anyway I think the people on YouTube record in advance and then edit.”

“"So if she does say anything ‘not good’ it can be edited out? That sounds good.”

“You do know that she might not say anything embarrassing and it might actually be good for her. She’s not been herself since dad died last year. She’s been kind of like a faded picture of herself or an Elinor on mute. Its been strange and sad seeing her so ‘not Elinor’”

The group went quiet, all looking down at the coffees avoiding each other’s eye. It was true, mum had spent the last year since dad’s death all wrong.

“"She had appeared more like my mother yesterday.” Niles said to Cassandra. “"Although I still think someone should be with her when she does this. I mean none of us actually know this Holly. She could be anyone and you always hear about people praying on the elderly. I’m going to call mother now.”

Niles picked his phone up from it habitual place next to hand on the table and called Elinor.

“Hi mother it's me Niles. Look I've been thinking about what you were saying yesterday about the internet and Holly and,” Niles went quiet. The others could hear the voice of Elinor on end of the line. However they could see the impact of her words on Niles , he began to rapidly lose all traces of colour under his vivid sunbed tan.

“"Oh, right. I’ll look for it now. But you’re alright mother? We’re with Helen and Ian now so I'll pass that on to them. yes, yes, ok. We’ll see you later. Bye mother,” Niles slowly pressed the disconnect button and looked at his phone.

“"Niles? what’s going on? You look funny, what did mother say?” asked Helen.

Niles did not answer and continued to look at his phone while the group continued to look at him. Slowly he opened up his phone and began to search.

“"Well, it appears our intervention is a little too late. It has already happened. That sneaky little cat has already got mother to talk on her internet blog. Mother’s given me the title so I’m searching for it now.”

Panicked looks shot like quick arrows around the table. Silence descended while everyone watched the frantic working of Niles’ fingers across the small screen of his smart phone. Ian cleared his throat before pronouncing,
“There’s a load of rubbish on the internet. You really have to look to find anything, it's not just there staring you in the face. Mum’s interview is probably difficult to find without the right words, we might not even find it. And if this Holly is not famous, which is very likely, then there is probably only a few people who will ever see mum’s interview.”

“"Ok. I’ve found it.”

Niles held up his phone during his proclamation, before spinning it around to enable all to watch the video. They watched in silence, before asking to watch 3 more times.

Ian was the first to break the silence, “"well that did not appear to be too bad. I thought mum came across rather well. Don’t you think?” He looked towards Helen first and then Niles and Cassandra.

“"You know it always rather surprises me just how photogenic she is, I know it shouldn't surprise me what with her past and everything and yet it sort of does. Am I being ageist?” Cassandra said to the group.

“"So. What next?” Helen asked, “"If people who know me see that they’ll know that's my mother. I mean I have pictures which they’ll have seen and I’ve made no secret of us being related.”

“"I guess the only thing we can do is wait and see what happens next. I mean what else is there we can we do?” Ian replied. “"Anyway we have to go, Helen and me are meeting some work friends in an hour and we need to change, yes?” He looked towards Helen, Helen looked down at her rose pink designer watch. “"Yes, yes I hadn't realised the time. We must fly. I need need to freshen up before we meet up with Sally and Peter. Tuesday at mother’s as usual Niles?”

The group exited in a flurry of goodbyes simultaneously dropping air kisses on all and with great importance both couple swept out of the coffee shop.

Elinor sat in her chair at home and watched herself again on the ‘You Tube’. She felt again the rush of excitement when the camera was set in front of her. She felt happy and no longer bored. Life had suddenly returned with its colours and vivacity and verve. She wondered what else she could do, she’d heard that sky diving could be fun.