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"Jordan, hurry up! You’re
lollygagging again," his mum called. She stood in front of the Bakery
Shop, waiting for her son to catch up. Jordan never walked fast. He was
too curious about all the things going on around him. He spotted a slug
moving down the gutter and stopped to watch it. "Come on, Jordan. We’ll
never get home if you don’t hurry up," his mum shouted.
Jordan answered, "Just a minute,
Mum. I’m watching a slug. It’s brown and slimy." He stood watching it
another moment or two and then ran towards his mum. He spotted the bakery
goods in the window. "Oh, Mum. Look at all those pastries." He licked his
lips. "Can we go inside and have a raisin scone?" he begged.
His mum looked in the window. "They
do look rather delicious. Let’s go in and have a cup of tea and a few
scones then," she smiled.
They went into the bakery. They had
to stand in line, as there were a several people in front of them. This
gave Jordan a chance to look at other sweets. "Mum, maybe I’d rather have
a tart. It’s filled with kiwi and mandarin oranges and strawberries and
looks delicious. Do you think the baker will put a dollop of cream on top
for me?" he asked, squeezing his mum’s hand.
She looked at the tart. "You can
have one of anything you want, Jordan. If you want a tart, that’s fine.
I’m going to have a raisin scone. It will be delicious with hot tea."
It was their turn to order. "We’d
like one of those fruit tarts, three raisin scones, and a cup of tea," his
mum said.
"Mum? You got three scones?" Jordan
asked.
"I’m going to take 2 home for us to
have tonight," she giggled.
They sat at a table near the door
and had their sweets and tea. Jordan didn’t like tea so he had a bottle of
lemonade. When they finished, they headed towards home. "Now, there’ll be
no dawdling, Jordan. We’ve got to hurry now or we’ll miss the bus," she
warned. She took Jordan’s hand and had to pull him along.
"Mum, stop!" he said. "I see
something on the ground up there." He pulled his hand from hers and ran
ahead. He bent over and picked something up.
"What is it, lad?" his mum asked.
"It’s 20p.," he beamed. "I can buy
myself a sweetie with it."
"If there’s time. Put it in your
pocket for now. Och, there’s the bus now. Hurry up," she said.
They ran to the bus and got on.
Jordan sat still but looked around at everyone. There was an elderly man
with a big moustache. Jordan started to giggle. "He looks like a walrus,"
he whispered to his mum.
"Shh, that’s not nice to talk about
people," she rebuked, but snickered to herself when she looked at the man.
Jordan saw a mum and her baby get
on. The baby had two teeth and a big grin. He smiled at Jordan. Jordan
smiled back and waved. The baby started to laugh. "Look at the baby, Mum,"
he said, tugging at his mum’s sleeve.
"Isn’t he lovely?" Mum answered.
At the next bus stop two boys got
on. They were teenagers. One had his nose, eyebrow and chin pierced and
wore three earrings on each ear. The other had even more and his hair was
dyed black and stuck up into the air. Jordan didn’t even look at them. He
was afraid to. He was glad when they got off the bus. "Mum, did you see
those boys?"
"Aye, the ones with all the
earrings. Don’t you be getting any ideas about that," she laughed.
"No way, Mum. I’m not doing that to
my face," he assured her.
They reached their street and Jordan
ran ahead. He stood at the front door and waited for his mum to catch up.
"Now who’s dawdling, Mum?" he giggled. |
