The Country Boy I Left Behind

Part 3 - Gerald's and Janet's

After a fitful nights' sleep that involved a particularly horrifying nightmare featuring human-sized cockroaches, I had awoken to the sound of a cockerel. At 6am.

Not in a good mood that part of my sleep - even if it had been a little unpeaceful - had been ripped from me by a farm yard animal, I went to grab a bowl of cereal before realizing that of course I had no food. There was some chicken broth left in a plastic tub, courtesy of Janet, so grimacing, I tipped it into a saucepan and heated it up on the huge, old cooker. Though I never would have admitted it in front of anyone, it wasn't the worst breakfast I'd ever had.

At eight, I set out in search of Gerald's and discovered it after a lengthy walk that made me out of breath and once again muddied my boots. I tried the door, only to find it closed and only then did I bother to read the opening times.

It didn't open until ten am.

"What kind of stores aren't 24/7 these days?" I muttered indignantly out loud to myself, before throwing my hands into the air. I headed back to Appletree Farm - to discover it was a mere three minutes away and that I had taken the round route - and ended up searching for a signal on my mobile phone for half an hour. Eventually, I obtained a bar but only if I stood angled in a certain direction on the kitchen table.

"Mark!" I almost sobbed into the phone when he finally answered, after his voice distorted slightly from lack of signal.

"Ella!" he replied with a laugh "Missing you too, sweetheart!"

I tried to keep him on the other end as long as possible but he had work and a client waiting to speak to him, so eventually I had to say my goodbyes. He promised he would be down in a couple days' time and I found myself praying that I would get caught in some kind of time warp so I could just skip to them. I held the device to my ear even after the dial tone of him hanging up sounded.

Ten o clock crawled around and I headed back outside, togged up in a huge duffel coat (my leather jacket hadn't been quite enough earlier) and the same mud-stained boots. When I rounded the corner, the shop looked just the same as before but the door actually opened when I pushed it.

'Gerald's' was miniature (really no other word can convey the small size) and clearly only sold the basics; milk, cheese, vegetables, bread, but little else. It was positioned so that the man operating the till - Gerald, presumably - could see all three metre long aisles and I found myself feeling self-conscious as I read food labels. Not a lot of diet food, I'll tell you that.

I finally deposited a small bundle of acceptable food on the counter - though the pile was very meagre, indeed since the shop stocked hardly anything specified on my diet plan - and Gerald scanned through them carefully, manually entering the price into the till.

"Hey up, Gabby," he said gruffly and my eyes widened in alarm. Why did everyone seem to know me around here.

"Hello...sir, and it's Ella, thank you," I replied uncertainly and he chuckled.

"I'm Gerald," he introduced "That'll be £13.78."

Admittedly, the prices were good.

I handed over a crisp, twenty pound note that he thumbed with a smile before handing me back a couple of corners that I slid straight into my purse. I waited for him to place my purchases into a carrier bag but he simply stood there, watching.

"Um, can I have a carrier bag?" I asked with a nervous laugh and he snorted.

"We don't have carrier bags 'ere! Didn't you bring your own?"

"No..." I said slowly and he shook his head.

"Never mind - I'll lend you a bag"

He produced a woollen-type jute bag from behind the counter and stacked the items carefully inside. When he had finished, he handed me the bag and I gave him a quick smile.

"Thank you," I said politely.

"It's alright, my dear," he said with a chuckle, which continued as I walked out the shop.

I arrived home and emptied the food into the cupboards, avoiding the ones that showed worrying signs of mould. When I had finished, I returned to my computer, booting it up again. No wi-fi, of course.

I finished a spreadsheet I had prepped for three customers and satisfied, I allowed myself to close it.

But now what?

Thankfully, something stopped me from having to come up with something. A knock sounded at the door.

"Gabby?"

Janet, again. I stood up and hopped over the creaking floorboards to the door before opening it.

"Yes?" I said as I pulled it open to a crack the size of my waist. She grinned at me.

"Hello! I thought you might wanna come over for tea tonight!" she gushed "Set you out an extra place and everythin'!"

"Well, that's very kind bu-"

"Great! Come round whenever you want, but it'll be served around six-ish."

She had gone before I could even spit out a single word. I shut the door, as I saw her retreating form bob out of sight. Wow, that woman could move fast. I headed back into the kitchen and glimpsed at the raw vegetable sat on the worktop that I was dreading having to prep and make into something edible.

I suppose I could just call in, eat and leave. It's hardly gonna hurt my diet anymore and I needn't stay long, I reasoned with myself. Sighing, I shut down my computer and shrugged on a jacket. The wind had died down a little so I chanced my leather jacket again and shoved my mobile into my zip pocket. Maybe they had better signal and I could sneak a few text to Mark. The hope buoyed me out the door.