Wedgie

Three

Twelve hours in the fridge, twenty-four hours in the freezer.

As she closed the door of the murder box, Theo squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on breathing in and out.

Earlier, after breakfast, she had showered quickly and changed into some shorts and an old, faded charity shop t-shirt. In preparation for this trip she had seen no point in packing any of her 'good' clothes considering they would either be too warm, too corporate, or get ruined anyway. And so a dozen random, some might say vintage, tops would be rotated with three pairs of brand new and unreasonably priced utility shorts she'd purchased from an industrial workwear store. Knowing they would be worn twelve hours a day, seven days a week, was her justification for splashing out.

The fact that they also made her bottom look and feel like she did a hundred squats a day was merely a coincidence.

First chore of the morning had been to let B1 and B2 out for their breakfast of pellets and vegetable peelings. Then, once they were happily waddling, or was it running, off to hunt bugs, the bucket and litter picker had been collected from the shed.

It had only taken Theo a few minutes to locate the cane toad hiding in the mulch beneath the grapefruit trees where she'd left it earlier. Under Edna's guidance, she had managed the process of catching and 'disposing' of the highly invasive and pretty poisonous creature.

"And you're absolutely sure they don't suffer?" Theo questioned, finally opening her eyes.

"Well, you are more than welcome to approach it another way." Edna tapped her liver-spotted fingers on a hammer, hanging from a tool rack beside the fridge.

"No, thank you. This way is fine. I'm ok now that I've done the first one."

Theo wasn't ok, and it wasn't fine per se, but she did realise she needed to toughen up quickly before her grandmother began questioning her ability to take care of her beloved home. She only had a vague memory of anything toad related happening during her visits when she was younger, but as she was certain it didn't involve fridge-freezers it was unsurprising she had blocked whatever that trauma was from her memory.

With the first stage of the deed done, she took a moment to check the stock levels of duck feed, and write down Edna's instructions on when and where to purchase more, while using the distraction to pull herself together.

"Ready?"Edna rubbed Theo's arm gently.

"Very." She closed her little notebook and shoved it, and the pen, into her back pocket. "Now, what's next?"

"Well, next is your favourite. Or at least it used to be your favourite when you were little."

"Oh my god, you still have the fruit stall?" Theo beamed, her mood instantly lifted. She hadn't noticed it on her arrival last night.

Most children loved to play shops at one point or another, but for her, it had been an obsession. The whole process of putting things out on display in the little cart at the bottom of the drive and writing up the chalk board with that day's produce and their prices, just scratched a part of her brain that the grown-up job of sitting at a desk typing numbers into a computer never did. And then there was the whole end of the day excitement, going down to check if anything was left, emptying the money tin and closing up before running all the way back up the hill to sort and count the coins.

Her childhood summers had been simple but blessed.

"I sure do. It could do with a bit of fixing up but it does the job."

"Does it actually make any money? Do people ever steal things?" These thoughts had never crossed Theo's mind when she was younger.

"It makes enough to be worthwhile putting stuff out every day, and yes, some people do take things without paying, but really, if they are in the position where they can't afford to buy fruit then they are most welcome to take it. I'm not likely to run out now, am I? Better that they have it while it's fresh than put it in the compost a week later."