Unheard {ONHOLD}

A jog

“Are you going running?” Mum asks me as I slip my sneakers on. She dries her hand on the apron and pulls a pot out of the cupboard.

I nod. I finish tying my shoe laces and I get up.

“Don’t stay too long” Mum says as she opens the fridge. As I walk out she calls to me. “Oh, hey! Jenny can you buy two cartons of three litre milk on your way? We ran out”

I nod and I walk out unto the porch. Looking around me, I note that I don’t have very long to run before it gets dark even though the shops close late.

“Jenny!” I hear Ollie call behind me. I turn to look at hi between the door way. “Are you going running?” I nod. “Can I come too? Please? Pretty please?”

I send an anxious look to mum. With Ollie, I can’t run as fast as I want. I try to send this thought to her but my piffle is not with her and she isn’t looking at my face.

“I don’t see why not” She says smiling. “Just don’t take too long”

Oliver jumps up and down in excitement. “Yay! Yay! I get to go” He runs back to his room and comes back with a yellow jacket. “Let’s go”

I wave goodbye to mum and I pull the door behind Oliver who jumps through and unto the porch. He looks up at me and grins widely before leading the way to the shops.

I follow behind him and watch him turn, making sure I always have him in view. Close to our house we have a new supermarket that no one goes to and a few other smaller business stores. Oliver skips into the local store that we have known since we were younger. I walk in to find him jogging over to the dairy section.

“Good afternoon, Jenny” Peter the owner tells me as I follow Ollie.

I wave and smile to him. He is slightly large for his age and he is also very cheerful. He always has a smile on his face when I come into the store.

Ollie comes back to the counter before I can meet him at the dairy section. He walks to the counter slowly and Peter and I watch him expecting the worst. He places the two cartons of milk on the counter and smiles triumphant when I nod at his choice of milk.

“Just these two today?” Peter asks as he scans them. I nod while handing him the money. “That will be five dollars. Do you need a bag?”

I nod and Peter pushes the milk cartons into a no-tear artificial plastic bag. He hands it to me and I smile before nodding and walking out of the store.

“Bye, Jenny” He calls after me. I poke my hand back into the store and I wave. I hear him chuckle.

“So, did I do a good job?” Ollie asks me as he jumps excitedly next to me. “I got the milk all by myself and I didn’t drop it”

I nod and smile. He did do a good job considering every time he got some sort of product with liquid from the shelf he usually dropped it and we’d have to clean it each time.

“Perfect qualities of a husband, don’t you think?” Ollie asks me. He raises his eyebrows hopefully. I smile and ignore his question. I wonder if he will ever grow out of this phase of wanting to marry me. “You know you have the perfect qualities of a wife Jenny. You don’t need to add anything, you are perfect just the way you are”

I pretend not to hear him as that will only boost his hopes, something I don’t want. As we get to the park a bicycle rings its whistle and I notice how much louder than normal it is. It gives me a slight headache as it passes me and Ollie.

Ollie picks a bench and he sits down with the plastic bag. He smiles at me as I stretch a little to warm me up.

“You’re so fast, Jenny” Ollie tells me as I jog on the spot. “I wish I was that fast”