The long wait

Time passes very slowly on a cold petrol-station forecourt

On Remembrance Day as it was getting dark, I pulled into Sainsbury's petrol station on the Lower Richmond Road in Putney, where I had been sent by my wife to find supper. As I parked, I noticed an elderly lady at one of the pumps sitting on an office chair behind a blue Nissan Micra, two traffic cones at her side as if to protect her from moving vehicle…