This isn't a short story, this is an observation.
Boxing Day, the 26th of December 2019, I go to my job as a waiter/bartender at a busy pub in the heart of Fremantle, Western Australia
After a hectic morning in the restaurant things started to quiet down, and towards the end of the lunch service an older lady walked in, she'd have been older than 80, she had that shuffling walk that older individuals get, you know the one? It's how you would walk if you were walking on ice. She was very well dressed, her Sunday (Boxing Day) best, with a nice wide brimmed hat, I'm not going to pretend that I'm any good at describing outfits so I'll stop trying. Walking into the restaurant with her was a middle aged man, maybe in his late 30's, he was not well dressed, tracksuit pants, a faded shirt, dirty trainers and a strange gait. By strange gait I mean properly strange, this man walked funny, he twitched, he moved his head around, snapping it from side to side. When I say them at table 14, closest to the counter, sitting opposite each other I quickly gathered two things, they're mother and son, and she is from England, he lives here, it was the accents that gave that away. At first I thought that maybe the man had a disability and that that might be why he was being the way he was.
It took 5 minutes to quickly realise that that was not the case. This man was tweaking, high on amphetamines possibly methamphetamine (based on its prevalence here), when I took their order he just for a beer in-between rolling his head from side to side, observing everything, chuckling to myself at some abstract thought. His mother got the fish and chips, such an English person order (not to stereotype or anything ha-ha.) she looked mortified, she had this reserved look on her face but when I looked (maybe a little too questioningly) into her eyes I could see the shock, embarrassment and sadness.
After taking the order her son walked off by himself, just disappeared, leaving his beer on the table, the lady sat at the table staring at her phone, she said she was fine when I asked if she needed anything. When old mate came back he was twitchy again, couldn't sit still, pointing at random things like the fan in the corner or the cricket on the TV while talking to himself and laughing , seemingly unaware of his mothers heart breaking in front of him. Did she fly over to Australia for Christmas to see family? Is this the first time seeing her son in years? Or is she maybe used to this? Does she even know what is happening? Her eyes said she did.
He didn't acknowledge her apparent discomfort, he hardly acknowledged her, she at in silence, he drank his beer in-between trips around the pub, coming back to mumble to himself.
I wonder if she blames herself, if she blames someone else, or maybe if she understands that he is just as responsible for his own choices as anyone else.
She finished her food, and left for the toilet and her son came up to pay the bill, he was polite, despite being completely off his head on god knows what, he shared some internal joke with the EFTPOS machine and had a chuckle, his mom came back, he said "thanks mum, cya" gave her two big thumbs up, turned around and walked off, in that overconfident yet twitchy meth walk that I've come to recognise, she left in the other direction to catch the bus.
My heart breaks for her.