Third In Line

Chapter Twenty Five - Josie

The supermarket was much less scary once Ellie realized they spent most of their time slowly gliding down dozens of near empty aisles, and anyone they did come across on their journey was polite and kind, allowing them to shop just like normal people. Some were too busy to even notice them, and even though Ellie enjoyed this feeling, not being instantly recognized was still a very strange experience indeed.

She still didn't feel like she could ease up and fully enjoy herself, but she was getting closer to that point. However, with her mother literally looming over her, she wasn't going to be doing anything too exciting any time soon.

Her mother was an incredibly slow shopper, keen on examining almost every product that they passed by on the shelves before making a selection. She tried to keep Ellie entertained with small talk and the occasional tickle, but after hours of standing on a slow moving trolley and listening to the bland melody that was playing in the supermarket, she was now absolutely bored out of her mind.

They picked up a dozen things from the frozen foods section and by then the trolley was practically overflowing with goods, piled high enough for Ellie to use as a freezing cold pillow. She fell asleep multiple times only to be woken up by announcements blurting out from speakers above them, or by the rattle of another trolley approaching them.

"Are we done yet?" she asked tiredly, feeling completely drained of energy.

Her mother leaned down and rested her chin on Ellie's shoulder, sensing Ellie's pain "Almost done sweetheart"

"But what's left? We picked up everything in the store!" Ellie complained.

"Your Dad asked me to pick up today's paper, and I wanted to take a look at some magazines. It's just one more aisle, I promise!" Kate gently rubbed Ellie's arm to reassure her as they turned into the last aisle in the supermarket.

"One more aisle. That's what you said last time" she replied, remembering the ten or so times her mother had said 'One more aisle' over and over again.

"I promise this is the last aisle. Look, it's the wall of the supermarket. We're almost at the end poppet" her mother encouraged her. The way she spoke of the end made it sound like a fantasy, a mythical land that no person had ever seen before, but yet here they were staring at it. Ellie never imagined she'd be so happy to see a wall.

"We can see if Louise's interview has been published yet" Ellie lit up as she spoke, remembering that the last time she had seen her cousin, Louise had just come from her first ever interview. She just hoped that Tesco had the latest issue of Tatler.

"That's the spirit. Now you're enjoying yourself huh?" Her mother asked hopefully.

"Almost Mum, I'm almost enjoying myself" Ellie answered, thinking she would wait until after she'd read her magazine and got home before deciding on whether it had been an enjoyable trip.

Once they entered the magazine and newspaper aisle, which was much shorter than every other aisle, Ellie finally had something to concentrate on. Her mother had been analysing every single product in the previous aisles, but now she casually scanned the odd magazine cover hoping to find something interesting to read. It was now Ellie's turn to work, keeping a keen eye out for Louise's face on one of the covers that they slowly passed by.

Excluding the articles about her that she sometimes couldn't help but read, the only reasons she had to read things like glossy high class magazines or high-brow newspapers were the interviews that members of her family sometimes gave to the media. She enjoyed the different perspective of her family that the world's media offered, as it helped her to understand how the world saw her family and how the world saw herself.