Crystals of ice glinted on the top of the frozen fish cake.
" Well that's not a very appetising dinner" said Juniper to herself as she tapped it up and down on the edge of the worktop, "I'd rather chew on a bag of nails and the bread bin only holds a dry crust." She glanced at the clock, she'd have to be quick if she wanted to get to the Co-Op. The mantra: keys, phone, purse, running through her head, she grabbed her coat, locked the flat and headed to the high street leaving the key behind the geranium pot. The evening was strung with dust motes floating in the last rays of sunshine, miracles of light looking for their labour's rest.
Juniper took the short cut though the church yard gloaming under the long shadow of ancient yew, startling slightly at the guttural sound of a impudent toad to her left. Her hand jumped to her heart as she muttered a prayer, " Saints preserve us," and hoped there would be nothing else leaping into the path. Having a good imagination was not always a good thing when you read the Tabloid papers. What with Aliens, a Panther and a Sasquatch being reported in the Black Hills, responsible for the abduction of several sheep over recent months she was almost afraid to leave the town. She decided to dip into the font on her way past the church, a little holy water was as good for protection as anything. As she clunk-creaked the door on its latch she noted the stained glass saints complete their march across the floor of the aisle then disappear as the sun finally dipped behind the horizon. The church had that distinct smell of incense, polished halos and damp wooden icons. She spied the verger balancing on a precariously placed ladder, polishing the World War honours list to those who's passing had been noted with medals of bravery that they would never see. There was a loose thread on the hem of his surplus and Juniper wondered idly who took up a needle and thread for him? Did he go to Patel's on the High Street? Or did he have a bespectacled parishioner slowly sewing her way to heaven in 'good deeds to clergy'?
She came to from her reverie, always the daydreamer, remembering she must get to the
Co-Op before it shut. She had sat in the cool of the church without realising and now as she stood noticed the sand gravelling between her toes from the beech last weekend.
" Cornflour! I must buy cornflour for the play school." That school of scandal,she added in her head, thinking of the graffiti she had read and believed in the public toilet at the park. How could the headmaster and the dinner lady have been so careless as to get caught together in the delivery truck? Those doughnuts were served in the staff room for goodness sake!
She brushed passed an errant self-seeded mint inhaling it's scent as she exited the lytch gate And listened as the lyrics of a song she didn't recognise faded away with a speeding car, it's window down to the cooling air. Her memory was as poor as a goldfish. She was so easily distracted. What had she come out for? She retraced the steps in her mind: mint, holy water, Saints, toads, Co-Op. That was it, something for tea.
Part 2
That was it, something for tea. Something else from the sea maybe? As she entered the Co-Op, Juniper noticed the other shoppers charging up and down the aisles like Duracell bunnies, as if their life depended on randomly filling their trolling and hastening home to their personal chaos. Their weekend would be full of small triumphs to be repeated ad nauseam, grass mowing, car washing, hedge trimming. hamsters on wheels. Not for the first time she found herself grateful for her small flat and single life. She could do as she pleased. She grabbed a basket and headed to the small fresh fish selection. Mackerel, that would do. She would have to buy two as there was no singles but she could make pâté with the other for her sandwiches in the week. She grabbed some cream cheese and some rocket and new potatoes for good measure and headed to the tills.
The young man at the register seemed to be preparing for some fancy dress outing or maybe a charity event? His hair was shaved into harlequin diamonds and dyed as many colours. This jarred most oddly with the pink bunny-rabbit onesie he was wearing which for some unknown reason had an inexplicably hairy tummy. What are those rabbits thought Juniper? Alpacas? No, that didn't sound right. She'd have to do an Internet search when she got home or she'd be up all night!
She heaved the door open and headed off back down the high street with her supper. She was back at the lytch gate again when she stopped dead and shouted,
"Cornflour! Juniper, you half wit."
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