The shopkeeper
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ says the tall man to his short companion.
Both their expressions are grave.
‘I’m sure,’ she says, finally. ‘I think it’s important for us.’
‘I just feel like there’s no going back from this.’
‘Don’t think about it like that,’ she says. ‘It’s a new beginning.’
A teenager in front of them buys a copy of Kerrang!
, then they’re left on their own, deliberating in serious silence.
The moment has more dramatic portent than you usually get at the one-stop newsagent next to Stockwell tube station, so the shopkeeper is appropriately enthralled.
He stares at the couple over the top of the counter, standing in front of racks of Yorkie bars and McCoy’s crisps and endless variations of chewing gum, staring at what the woman holds in her hand.
Slowly, purposefully, she places their purchase on the counter.
It’s a toothbrush.
‘Now you’ll always have one at mine,’ she says.