Wednesday 28 July 2010

You Have to Speculate - Don't You?

I’ve been in a certain shopping centre many times and I’ve always liked the view coming out.

So I took a picture as I was leaving and I zoomed in on the shop at the end . . . ahem . . . oh will you look at that, it’s Thorntons! You know I hadn’t realised, fancy that being there . . . Anyway I noticed a fuzzy blur in the window. I filled the flash a bit and lo, I found a man – a bearded man with a big smile.


I find it amazing and a bit magical that he was there in the original picture even though I couldn’t see him.

So why is he smiling? Does he work there? Has he just sold a gigantic box of chocs? Or is he buying a gift for someone and smiling because he’s imagining how pleased she’s going to be.

“What’s this? But you know I’m on a diet! How could you?”

“I’ll take them back.”

“Get your hands off. I’ll have to eat them now. See I’ve opened them . . . nom yum mmmem . . . stupid man . . . chomp slurp. My mother was right about you . . . I never did like that beard . . . yumm ummph shlurrrp.”

Or perhaps he’s a ghost. The building is old. Maybe he flits round before the shop opens smelling the chocolate and wishing he was still alive to eat it.

Well all this speculation is a waste of time as the bearded man in the shop is actually a reflection of the man walking past – who hasn’t even got a beard (you’ll have to take my word for it as I’ve fuzzed his face since the poor chap didn’t ask to be splattered all over my blog!).




How disappointing, but on the other hand it’s all ink in the writer’s pen isn’t it?

12 comments:

  1. Hi Teresa

    You ghost sounds like a good idea for a story. More more exciting than a reflection anyway.

    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  2. I sense a tale of missing chocolates, involving a stranger wearing a false beard!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooooh! The possibilities are endless aren't they, Teresa - how intriguing!

    Julie xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. What I'd like to know is what is Kenny Rogers doing in Thorntons?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah, but why is he walking past? Perhaps he's off to buy a diamond ring instead of choccies for the love of his life - or maybe she dumped him that morning and he's off to get rat poison to spice up the soft centres?

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's exactly how I felt Linda - ghosts far more exciting than reflections!

    Now there's an idea, Martin!

    Yup they are, Julie.

    Now you come to mention it, Sue - what was Kenny Rogers doing in there?

    He could be an alien, Patsy - not lured by chocolates. There's a thought.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maybe he's an alien who has been told a sure-fire way to poison the poplulation of planet earth is to lace the contents of Thorntons with arsenic! I love speculating on people like this. Where would we be for stories, if it weren't for "what-if?" x

    ReplyDelete
  8. If he's an alien he could have flown across the Galaxy to buy a Mars bar.
    Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  9. He can buy me chocolates any time. If you see him again tell him I like Thornton's Continental best, but am also partial to their coffee creams, chocolate ginger, and Turkish Delight (though they only seem to do the latter towards Christmas).

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the idea of him being a ghost!

    ReplyDelete
  11. PS
    Just read your latest story in T-a-B.
    I liked the idea of the husband not being able to drive.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love all this speculation too, Lydia.

    It had to be said, Keith. And maybe he got delayed in the Milky Way.

    I'll tell him, Joanne. I really like the little bars they do - I can't remember offhand what they're called but they've got coconut and apricot in I think. It's so long since I had one . . .

    Me too, Helen. I'm always taking photos then zooming in looking for ghosts.

    Thanks, Keith. I'd completely forgotten that story so it was a nice surprise to see it in the mag.

    ReplyDelete