How to Age Disgracefully

Police Constable Penny Rogers pulls over a minibus and boards it to find the passengers are a mix of ages, most of them over 70 or under 5. The driver, a distraught middle-aged woman, explains that she didn’t pull over sooner because she was looking for a place to take a toilet break. Penny stopped the vehicle because someone on it is wanted by the Metropolitan Police for questioning.

One passenger thinks Penny intends to arrest her because she snapped at her husband. An older man says they’re after him because of his substance misuse disorder and says, “I should have stuck to bingo, like an ordinary pensioner” (3). A boy next to him, dressed like a policeman, opens his eyes and shouts that there’s a read. The others exclaim that they’ve never heard Lucky speak before. A teenaged boy holding a baby asks if Social Services sent Penny.

As others continue confessing, Penny holds up a picture of the person she is looking for. Everyone looks out the window, where an older woman who escaped the bus is crossing the lanes of traffic.