Snatches of Conversation

Snatches of conversation can be found everywhere, floating out of bar room doors, drifting on the breeze where people sit in outside areas, talking sharing. Of course these snatches are shifty characters, incomplete and slippery, open to all kinds of interpretations. If you try to listen too deeply the snatches simply clam up and become silent.

Recently I have overheard two incomplete conversations. One was whilst waiting outside a public toilet. Two women aged approximately seventy years were holding a discussion, oblivious to the women surrounding them in the queue.
One bent forward, the lines between her eyebrows deepening. I thought this to be significant. Then she spoke. 'I have made up my mind, I'm going to the house tonight'.
'Oh! said the other, 'How do you feel about that?'
'I'm very worried and uneasy. 'I'm going in and will need backup' Was the response.
From these snatches I wondered, where the old ladies two police officers? Was espionage involved? After all, don't they always say 'I'm going in, cover my back' on television. Or was she
a burglar, going home to get dressed in black with a mask and then covered in grease off to her next 'mark?' Was it all innocent? Perhaps it was a friend's birthday and she wanted to surprise her. Somehow this didn't sound very festive.
Then it was my turn to use the vacant toilet so I did not hear the end of the conversation.

The second snatch of conversation I heard was while searching through a second hand book store. The woman next to me had a mobile phone which began ringing insistently. I'm sure the tune came from Star Wars. Her conversation with the caller went something like this.
'I'm in a book store at the moment so I can't say much. I phoned you about my daughter. She seriously needs help and I think she should come and see you'. There was a pause, then,
'Well she is seeing a man and I think he is a drug addict and may even be a dealer', said loudly and in a firm tone. Again silence, 'Then, well I', very busy and can't really make an appointment until the end of the month. Do you have a time then?
At that moment I had to pay my book and no reason to stay in the store. Still, I couldn't help be curious, who had the woman phoned? Was it the police? A counsellor? Did her daughter know she was making contact to talk about her? Even if her daughter was unaware there where 16 customers in a second hand book shop that now knew.

Eavesdropping is the best way to find out what these 'snatches of conversation are up to. But be prepared for disappointment, as I have discovered meeting with snatches is rarely a fulfilling experience.