I’m trying to decide whether to buy

Miguel de Cervantes for kids

Or a book on the grammatical structure of Jamaican Creole

When-

.

“Gary, love, you know those twenty pound notes you gave me”

.

A tinny voice

Scratches their way out of a speaker phone

The hand that holds the phone

Nowhere to be seen.

.

“Well some of them are missing”

.

I hear mumbling …”Janet.”

Mumble Mumble Mumble.

I go past the French aisle, nothing

Return a book to Jamaica

.

“And some of them look like they’ve been chewed apart”

.

I think back to last week’s novel by Sara Collins

Her protagonist, Frannie

Forced to eat pages of a book she dared to read

Who dared to steal this money? Got caught and forced to chow down on

Ink, Sweat, Metallic and-

.

“Corner shop won’t take ’em”

.

I turn into the German aisle to spot

A giggling couple caressing their fingers

Over a copy of Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’

It takes both of them to hold the weight of 60 pages.

Even they are distracted by Janet down the phone.

.

“I’m not being funny love, but you’re the only person who’s given me £20 notes”

.

The audio and veneer of being “nice” begin to crack.

I quicken my pace, Gary makes no response back.

Past Russian, Italian, Urdu and Indonesian

Gary’s silence causes Janet’s intonation and blood pressure

To compete for dominion.

.

“Gary. Gary!”

.

Gary is crouched down on the carpet

Reading ‘The Little Prince’ in Welsh.