David Chadwick

Who was that masked man?

 

She should not have been there

They tell you all the time

When you’re shopping with the kids

Pay attention, take care

One of the main causes of injuries in supermarkets

is children falling out of trolleys,

So don’t leave them there unsupervised.

Now you could be pedantic and say

it was not a supermarket,

It was a hardware megastore

and the child in question was not really unsupervised,

just forgotten momentarily.

But I think that for all intents and purposes,

we are talking about the same situation.

 

I should not have been there

It had been a long morning

Playing Christmas songs with Simcha

For the good people visiting the library fair

I wanted to go home and put my feet up

Not traipse around some barn full of garden furniture,

shower fittings, and high-gloss varnish

I was there on sufferance

At the counter

Half listening to the lad

as he priced the various options for retaining walls,

compared the qualities and shortcomings of each,

and hinted at deals not he, but the boss, might be able to make

to match their competitors’ offers on the same product

I was losing interest, my mind was wandering

I gazed around this Mecca for home handypersons

And that was when I saw her

Just two or three paces away from me

Mum and Dad had turned away

to do something really interesting at the counter

Much more interesting

than the view of their backs she could now see

Time to make use of a new-learned skill and join them

So she rose ever so shakily to her little feet

Balancing precariously in the wire mesh cage

High above the flat, grey concrete floor

And reached unsteadily for the arm of her mother’s jacket,

which was only a tiny lunge beyond her grasp.

With no time to find a phone booth

I would have to handle this situation in civvies

One, two, three steps and I was there

In time to scoop her up,

just as she pitched forward,

And deliver her safely across the divide to her mother

Who at that moment had turned to see

The whole near-tragedy unfold

 

She should not have been there

I should not have been there

But just now and again things work out

Her mother and father were all chatter and thanks

Their tongues loosened by a surge of relief

“No worries,” I smiled modestly

And disappeared into the crowd of onlookers