MERMAID (chapter 3.1)

3. THE SHOPS

We both shoved our thongs on and hopped in our white Toyota Corolla. OK so it’s not the fanciest car around, but it is the only one we could afford and it’s not like we need all that space, it being just the two of us. Though the left over room is handy when we go on a vacation, since I basically bring everything i own with us.  

It only took about five minutes to arrive at The Shops. Just so you know, ‘The Shops’ isn’t a huge mall or anything. Actually it’s the complete opposite. There are only about five stores run by locals and none of them sell clothes.  If Brittney had to stay here, she would definitely die within a day. She can’t live without a clothes store and buying something for more than an hour. I bet she dreams about all the new stuff she wants!

We parked in one of the ten available spaces and walked off to our left, where the chip shop was. We never seem to remember the name of the store, so we just call it the chip shop.

“Hey James,” called my dad from the door. Every time you walk into this shop, an annoying bell starts ringing so I always try and get past it as fast as possible. So when dad just stood there, I pushed him through the door.  I mean, could you blame me?

He almost fell face first onto the newly polished floor, but luckily he just managed to grab onto one of the plastic chairs near by. When he regained his composure, my dad turned to me and boy did he look angry!

“Why’d you do that Cy!” He yelled at me. The tip of his nose was turning white. I knew that was a bad sign. He must have been really angry.

“I…I don’t like the bells,” I stuttered, a little frightened. When my dad gets upset, it’s not a pretty sight.

At first, dad’s nose became so white, it was glowing. Then James, the owner of the chip shop, began to chuckle heartily. It was infectious and soon all three of us were laughing for no apparent reason. When we had all calmed down, dad ordered some chips and two large pieces of fish.

While we were waiting for it to be fried, dad and I went to the book store.  It was right next to the Chip shop, and had a café attached to it. That was convenient since we were both really thirsty and needed a good book to read at night.

“Hello Lynn,” my dad waved over at an old woman in about her sixties. She had wild grey hair, which she tried to keep in place with a net but a few wisps had escaped and they constantly blowing in her eyes.

“Hey Jerry, nice to see you again, everything’s fine?” She pushed away some run away hairs from her face.

My dad nodded, grinning.

“And Cy! You have grown so much taller since I last saw you!” Lynn came out behind the counter and wrapped her frail old arms around me. 

Hi, so this is a kinda 'fill in' chapter, i've just been a bit busy and i'll get to the good stuff in the next chapter or so :) thanks for reading