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lørdag den 5. juni 2021

Words for Wednesday - June 2 - 2 part

This June  the Words for Wednesday are at River's blog Drifting Through Life. For June 2 we were given:

1. shindig
2. hootenanny
3. shemozzle
4. heiress
5. banana
6. barricade
     and/or:
1. light
2. tough
3. coffee
4. nightmare
5. curved
6. Christmas

Remember to go back, read other peoples' stories there or follow their links back. And please place a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction.


I promised to continue my story. Here's the next part. It is a bit rough, but well .. and it ends abruptly. I promise more, maybe with the new prompts, maybe using the last two.

After almost a month of hard work, the shop was nearly finished. The Saturday before the opening, they worked hard to finish everything, and in the evening they had a meeting with people from similar shops all over Zealand. The meeting consisted of a pep-talk, practical instructions, showing of a new movie and a general discussion. It took place in Copenhagen. Susan slept through the most of the movie, and over the coffee during the break she realized that the cookies and coffee she was eating, was the first she had been eating since breakfast. No wonder she felt weak. Cookies was a sad excuse for dinner.

Friday they held a grand parade through the pedestrian streets of the town. The parade was duly announced to, and approved by the local police, but halfway through, they found their way barricaded by the girls' marching band. Of course they retreated, plastering themselves to the walls and stopped playing and singing.
The opening next day turned into somewhat of a schemozzle. Costumers came in great numbers, flooding the small shop, almost fighting over the clothes and bric-a-brac for sale.
Susan was not old enough to be behind the counter, legal age of 18 was a requirement to handle money, but she showed people around, filled the shelves and prevented shop lifting. This was a necessary job, as middle aged women circulated in organized groups, distracting the personnel and pilfering small, but expensive objects.
After the first day, the shop had netted about the sum, they had expected from the first month. It had been one of the subjects on the meeting in Copenhagen whether to register to pay some kind of tax, but as none of the existing shops were compelled to register, their shop had not registered either. This registration required sales for a rather large amount of money, and was a nightmare of paperwork, so nobody wanted to do it unless forced to it. But nonetheless their shop was forced to do so within 3 months.
Susan was in the shop almost every afternoon. She hung dresses on hangers, placed shoes in the window, nicely lined up, and almost every day after closing time she went to the post office with the day's income. She was not old enough to receive money and give back change to the customers, but nobody had second thoughts trusting her with lots of money in the half-empty streets. She sometimes pretended all the money was her own, that she was the heiress to a fortune, but those dreams never lasted long.
to be continued ...

8 kommentarer:

  1. Another wonderful installment. Thank you.
    A very minor quibble. The middle aged shoplifters should probably distract personnel rather than personal.

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    1. Thank you for this ... and yes, inattentive me and spellchecker combined is not a very good combination. I correct at once!

      Slet
  2. You always keep me wondering what's next. And thank you for teaching me a new word, I'd never heard of "shemozzle."

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    1. Thank you for these words, they make me want to write more. But the prize for teaching us shemozzle goes to River, who posted the prompts for this Wednesday ;) It was new to me as well.

      Slet
  3. Susan's state of mind at this time comes through very well.

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    1. Thank you. I'm really struggling to describe it.

      Slet
  4. I'm happy with this chapter, the shop is doing very well, except for the pilfering old ladies. Susan seems to be happier now.

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    1. Happier, only on the outside, unfortunately.

      Slet

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