The Corner Shop on Foxmore Green by Lilac Mills

Author:Lilac Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2023-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Rowena couldn’t resist taking a peep through the grimy windows of the corner shop as she walked Nia home from school on Tuesday. Cupping her hands around her face, she peered inside, then laughed as Nia did the same.

‘What’s in there, Mammy?’

‘Nothing at the moment. It’s empty. See?’

‘Why is it empty?’

‘Because the people who used to own it decided they didn’t want to sell anything anymore.’

‘Why—?’ Nia was distracted from asking another question by someone calling Rowena’s name.

Rowena tore her gaze away to find Dee hurrying towards her. ‘I was hoping to catch you,’ she said. ‘Have you made a decision yet?’ She glanced meaningfully at the shop.

‘Yes, and no. I really want to rent it and the price is good, but it all depends on my friendly business manager at the bank. I hope he is friendly,’ she added quickly. ‘I’ve not met him yet. I’ve got an appointment on Monday, so I can’t commit to anything until I’ve met with him first. It’s all so up in the air at the moment.’

‘I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you,’ Dee said.

‘I’m hopeful,’ Rowena replied. ‘But you never know,’ she cautioned, not wanting to sound too confident in case she came a cropper.

Dee pulled a face. ‘By the way, I think the cat is out of the bag. Everyone knows about your plans to open a zero waste shop.’

‘My mam found out that I’d gone to have a look at it and asked me why, so I had to tell her, then Mrs Moxley overheard, and so did Janet and Rachel,’ Rowena explained.

‘I think it’s a fabulous idea. I, for one, will shop there.’

‘If it gets off the ground,’ Rowena reminded her.

‘I can name all the colours of the rainbow,’ Nia announced, and began to reel them off. ‘Red, orange, yellow, pink—’

‘I don’t think pink is one of them,’ Rowena said, smiling down at her.

‘It is,’ Nia insisted. ‘I painted a rainbow and it’s got pink in it.’

Rowena bit her lip, holding back a laugh. However, her mirth was soon replaced by exasperation when Dee said, ‘I’ve heard you’ve been seeing Huw Morgan.’

‘It’s no secret.’ Even if she wanted it to be, it was almost impossible to keep one if you lived in Foxmore.

‘You went for a drink, and a meal,’ Dee said, raising her brows knowingly.

Nia said, ‘We had a picnic and Huw taught me to tickle stickybacks. And we saw a herrin – I mean a heron. He’s funny.’

Dee gazed at Nia. ‘The heron?’

‘No, Huw. He pretended to be a heron. He had a net and a bucket.’ She said that as though a net and a bucket were the most important things in the world. Which, Rowena thought, was probably the case if you were four and you wanted to catch small fish.

‘I’m going to wear a pink dress,’ she said, but before her daughter could say anything further Rowena leapt in with, ‘How about fish fingers for tea?’

‘Yay!’ Nia hopped up and down.

‘And a corn on the cob?’

‘With butter?’

‘Of course, with butter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.