This wasn’t how he’d planned to spend his life – standing under a dripping awning gazing out at equally wet, cold and miserable people. But at least it was a job of sorts. As a lad he’d loved working the market with Sid, but joining the army had broadened his horizons. For the hundredth time he wished he hadn’t given in to the impulse to cut short his army career. If he’d stayed on he’d have finished up with a proper trade. He’d learned a lot about engines and vehicle maintenance, but it wasn’t enough to get him taken on as a mechanic and now he was too old to do a proper apprenticeship. Now, here he was, weighing out potatoes and trying to summon up enthusiasm for the bananas and oranges which had once been luxuries but which now seemed to be available all year round. Not that many of the people round here could afford them and if they could, they weren’t hanging around on such a grey day. There weren’t even any kids around whom he could ask to keep an eye on things while he went for a warming cuppa at Bob’s Café.
