547. A question of habit
© Bruce Goodman 10 April 2015






Louisa lived about an hour’s drive from the shops. There were four mouths to feed, and she would go into town every second Monday and get two weeks’ supply of groceries.

Today was different. It was only Thursday of the first week, but Mr and Mrs Higgins were coming for dinner tomorrow evening. A special trip to town was required. Louisa made a list of what was needed. Thank goodness she remembered to take the list. She’d left it sitting on the kitchen bench, and was just driving out her gate when she remembered she hadn’t got it with her. Lucky save!

Upon arrival at the supermarket, she got a large trolley and spent ages selecting the ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner. She read the packets of things, and went from soup packets to sauce packets and back. Things had to be just right. Well, things didn’t HAVE to be “just right”, but Louisa wanted it to be nice.

The trolley was piled with stuff. The shop assistant scanned them. And behold! Louisa’s purse had been stolen. She’d had it sitting in the trolley as she always did. There was no way she could pay for her groceries.

She contacted her Bank and cancelled her cards. She contacted the Police. The Police took down her details, including her mother-in-law’s maiden name, which seemed to be really important information for the recovery of her purse.

It took all day, and in the end, Louisa drove home grocery-less and in the foulest mood possible.

Her husband was home from work. And there, sitting on the kitchen bench, was her purse. She’d left it behind when she came back to pick up the grocery list.


Contact Author
Back to Story Listings
Next Story
Previous Story