Will and His Dog and the Man in the Trees

Will and His Dog and the Man in the Trees

Copyright 2020 Paul Cook

Cover Image by Paul Cook

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Will and His Dog and the Man in the Trees

Will hated shopping. He looked forward to the day when he would be old enough to be left at home while his mum went to the shops without him.

"Why can't you order the groceries online?" Will moaned one morning as he got into his mum's car to go shopping.

"I like to see the food for myself before I buy it," replied his mum. "I don't want to hear any moaning from you today Will. We have to shop otherwise we will run out of food and go hungry."

Will thought that the other reason that Will's mum enjoyed shopping so much was that she liked to gossip with other mums. He slumped down in the back of the car and hoped that today his mum wouldn't take too long in the supermarket.

Will followed his mum around the supermarket as she pushed the trolley from aisle to aisle. He could predict the order in which she would buy stuff – veg first, then bread, then milk and so on. Will saw another kid from his class in school. Will thought that the boy looked as miserable to be there as he was.

By the time Will's mum had finished her shopping and reached the tills, she had chatted to three different mums. Each conversation, in Will's opinion had been a complete waste of time. The first conversation had been about the rising price of bread. The second conversation had been all about another mum who Will had never met. The third conversation, the longest, had been about where the best place was to buy school uniform.

Will had had enough of it all.

As they queued for the tills, Will watched the people in front of them. An old lady was immediately in front of them. She only had a packet of biscuits and some tea bags. In front of the old lady was a young man Will guessed to be in his twenties. He had long hair, a beard and his clothes were very shabby. He only had a packet of crisps to buy. Will guessed that it wouldn't be long before he was out of the shop and back in the car on his way home.

"You're two pence short," snapped the girl serving on the till to the shabbily dressed young man.

"I'm sorry," said the man.

"Well you can't have the crisps if you don't have the money," replied the girl.

The old lady in front of Will's mum turned around to speak to her. "It's disgusting to see people like that around here."

Will's mum didn't reply to the old lady but instead reached inside her purse and found a two pence coin.

"Here," said Will's mum, as she stretched over to pass the coin to the girl on the till.

The girl on the till looked disappointed but took the coin and gave the man the bag of crisps with a scowl.

The man looked past the old lady to Will's mum and thanked her. He left the shop.

"We don't want people like that around here," said the old lady.

The girl on the till agreed with her.

Will's mum passed no comment.

Will thought about the young man in the car on the way home.

"Mum," said Will, "why did that man not have enough money to buy the crisps in the shop?"