Where had the time gone?
He hadn’t lost it down the side of the sofa,
joining the plethora of other 
pound coins which had been hiding there.
He hadn’t accidentally thrown it away 
like that pair of football boots 
all those years ago.
He hadn’t done either of those things 
yet he still couldn’t understand 
where it had gone.

Most would stop looking,
given up the search
and rightly so,
no one had ever found it again,
or not that he’d heard of.
Although
something inside of him didn’t like the idea 
of giving up.
It seemed wrong.
even if it was the common route.

He looked at his watch
as if though it would speak back to him.
He thought himself silly,
the quiet ticking the only reply 
he was expecting.
The room had an eeriness to it, 
the objects around him becoming blurrier by the 
second.
They had lost meaning.
He couldn’t recognise any of them,
suddenly feeling like a stranger in his own house.
He felt like he belonged less
than they did.
The objects sat there on their shelves, 
contempt with the days passing by 
with no sign of aging.
No change from the moment they were placed there.

Then he glanced at something that 
he did recognise.
An old friend.
The aloe vera growing on the windowsill.
It had seen better days
and could have done with some watering.
The only other thing in this room that been neglected
and had the signs to prove it,
Green and dismayed like an old person 
staring out the window of a retirement home,
longing for a change in their monotonous routine 
of tablets and bingo.
Obviously, the plant could not play such games,
but if did,
it would have definitely been 
a snakes and ladders fan.

The plant was closer to the human 
currently observing them, 
than the porcelain dog that had not sniffed once 
since it had sat on that bookcase.
Which by nature,
made it very un-dog-like.
It was thanks to time that the human 
had once again
taken a liking to the aloe vera perched on the windowsill.
Forgetting all about the fact that he was lost,
he filled a glass of water,
gently pouring it onto 
the very thirsty friend of his.