EMPTY ROOMS ‘We’ve got three rooms empty now’, she said, ‘now that Elsie’s gone’. ‘I know’, I said, ‘I saw them yesterday, you told me then’. ‘But when, and how?’ she asked, as if I must be wrong. ‘Remember Mum, I came for Sunday lunch - it’s Monday now.  Roast beef and veg, remember?’ ‘Yes’, she said and searched her mind for bits of information.  Stored, but in which dusty box? ‘Oh, yes’, she said again and watched me for a clue. ‘She gave her body to the university, you know and so she went straight there. There wasn’t any funeral as such. We had a kind of service in the dining room, right here; and so there’s three rooms empty now, right here next door to mine’. 'Empty Rooms' published in 'Beatlick News' Vol 11, Issue 24 Dec 04, USA. (c) Anita Sinclair 29th June 2004