Livora Gracely

The shopping found extra hands.

Between Two Trolleys

Mrs Ellis had given Mr Ellis one important instruction about the shopping.

“Please don’t put anything on top of the bread.”

“I’ve made a place for it,” he said.

He lifted a bag into the back of their yellow car and tucked it beside a red shopping basket. Mrs Ellis watched him arrange a carton of milk, a bag of apples, and a packet of rice around it.

“The bread is on top,” he announced.

“On top of what?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Excellent.”

Beside them, Mrs Lin and Anna were loading their own shopping into a blue car. Their trolley stood near the yellow one, leaving enough space for people to pass between the cars.

Anna had just placed a bag in the boot when she noticed another paper bag standing on the ground between the two trolleys.

“Is this yours?” she asked Mrs Ellis.

Mrs Ellis looked inside her trolley. It was empty.

“I think we have everything.”

Mr Ellis looked into the boot. “The bread is here.”

“We’ve established that,” said Mrs Ellis.

Two Lots of Green

Anna turned to Mrs Lin.

“Perhaps it’s ours.”

A bunch of spring onions poked out of the bag. Mrs Lin had bought spring onions for a cooking afternoon with her neighbours.

“I bought two bunches,” she said. “I can see one in the car.”

“I bought some too,” Mrs Ellis said.

Mr Ellis nodded. “I put them beside the bread.”

“Are you sure?”

“I was very careful. I put all the delicate things together.”

Anna held the bag by its handles. “I could check what else is inside.”

“Let’s see if we can work it out first,” Mrs Lin said. She took a folded shopping list from her handbag.

Mrs Ellis found her receipt. “I bought one bunch.”

“And I bought two.” Mrs Lin looked into the blue car again. “There’s definitely only one in here.”

“Then the bag must be yours,” said Mr Ellis.

“Unless my spring onions are still missing,” Mrs Ellis replied.

Mr Ellis leaned into the yellow car. “They’re right here.”

He lifted a bundle of leafy green stalks.

Mrs Ellis examined it. “That’s celery.”

“It’s beside the bread,” he said.

“I can see you were careful with it.”

“It has leaves.”

“So do the spring onions.”

Mr Ellis returned the celery to its place. “This is becoming less helpful than I intended.”

A Note on the Handle

Mrs Lin stepped closer to the bag Anna was holding.

“There’s writing on the handle.”

In small blue letters, someone had written: BREAD ON TOP.

“That’s mine,” Mrs Lin said. “I wrote it before we came out of the shop.”

Anna smiled. “I thought you meant the other bag.”

“I meant whichever bag had the soft rolls.”

She opened the top just enough to look beneath the spring onions. A cloth lay over a paper packet.

“There they are.”

Anna checked the rolls and placed the bag in the blue car, with nothing on top of it.

“Two lots of bread,” Mr Ellis said. “We were bound to have a difficult afternoon.”

“We still haven’t found our spring onions,” Mrs Ellis reminded him.

They searched the yellow car together. Mr Ellis moved the apples while Mrs Ellis lifted the corner of a cloth bag beside the bread.

“There,” she said.

The missing spring onions lay underneath, their long green tops folded neatly along the bottom of the boot.

“I put those there,” Mr Ellis said.

“You did.”

“I thought they looked safer than the celery.”

Mrs Ellis passed him the cloth bag. “They were. We couldn’t see them at all.”

One Last Look

With both sets of shopping accounted for, Anna gathered the two trolleys.

“I’ll take yours back with ours,” she told Mrs Ellis.

“That’s kind of you. Wait a moment.”

A canvas bag still hung from the handle of Mrs Lin’s trolley. Mrs Ellis lifted it off and handed it to Anna.

“I nearly returned that as well,” Anna said.

“It’s mine,” Mrs Lin said. “I brought it for the rolls, but they went into the paper bag instead.”

Anna folded the canvas bag and placed it in the blue car. Then she wheeled both trolleys towards the collection point, one behind the other.

Mrs Lin watched her go. “She’s meant to meet a friend. I hope we haven’t made her late.”

“I’ll give her a hand,” Mrs Ellis said.

She caught up with Anna and took the second trolley. Together, they guided them into the row. Anna checked her phone and smiled.

“My friend’s running a few minutes late too.”

“Then we’ve both gained some time,” Mrs Ellis said.

Back at the cars, Mr Ellis lowered the yellow boot lid, then stopped before it closed.

“Everything’s in.”

Mrs Ellis looked at him.

“The bread is on top,” he added.

“On top of what?”

He opened the boot again. The loaf was still exactly where he had put it, with nothing above or below it.

“Nothing at all,” he said.

Mrs Lin glanced into her own car. “And the rolls are on top of the spring onions.”

Anna came back just in time to hear her.

“I thought you wanted the bread on top.”

“I did,” Mrs Lin said. “It’s the spring onions I’m worried about now.”

Livora Gracely ♥