Anything that gets you though bro, I think.

My eyes following him towards the shop door, as he swings the four cans by his side, pulling the door open, and then disappearing out into the night. He was looking for something to get him through - just a little something. But the night has him now.

I step forward, just as the young woman ahead of me has done.  Her hand jerks quickly, to catch the falling strap of her handbag, which has fallen off her left shoulder. She grips it tightly, and then places the strap back up, higher up onto her arched shoulders. She leaves it to hang there, taking her hand away to cross her arms, and leaning her weight down on her right foot to keep her left shoulder up, and the strap up, as the handbag leans out away from her and begins to twist forlornly.

The shopkeeper's hand rubs nervously at her chin, exposing the redness of the skin on her arm again. I'm sorry I can't Mandy, she says to the young woman.

"Please”, the young woman whispers, in a childlike way as if she’s asking to stay up after her bedtime. “I just can’t Mandy, Sukhi won’t let me.”  I think Sukhi, is her husband, or her boss, either way; he’s the guy who couldn’t be arsed to come out and man the other till.

Welcome to the Smethwick Playhouse and the free drama for all to see.  "Who's next?" the shopkeeper shouts as she looks beyond the young woman. I don't know why she’s shouting at me though as I'm just a few feet away from her, and looking directly at her.  Nonetheless, she gestures towards me, theatrically, repeatedly closing and opening her fingers onto her palm, calling me hither.

4/7