Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write, a story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.
If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words are again supplied by Delores and can be found here.

This week's words are:

1. caper

2. scarper

3. trash

4. bedlam

5. seams

6. pennywhistle

and/or:

1. glum

2. charmed

3. pork

4. glossy

5. pride

6. trench

Here is my story:

Janet looked decidedly glum as she sat all alone on the hard metal bench seat in the cell. Once again she had been charmed into another one of Big Dave’s capers. “You won’t get caught this time,” he’d said.  “I’ve got it all figured out. All you have to do is lean against the wall across the road and if you see a copper, blow hard on this little pennywhistle.”

“Across the road from where?” said Janet. “Cartwright’s Butcher Shop,” said Big Dave. “Me and the boys are planning a big cook-up down by the creek and we want a few dozen pork sausages. Colin already nicked a bag of onions from his mum’s pantry, she’s so muddle-headed she’ll just think she forgot to buy some.”

“I don’t know,” said Janet. “Last time PC Wicks told me I’d better keep my nose clean, I don’t think I wanna do this.” “Oh come on,” said Big Dave. “What harm can it do? You just hang around by the wall next to the bookshop, look at a few books if you want, just remember to keep an eye out for the coppers too. Four o’clock Thursday, it’s always real busy then ‘cos it’s payday and all the mum’s will be in getting the meat for the week’s dinners. Trevor reckons he can duck in and out in no time and old man Cartwright won’t even notice him” He flashed his famous smile and tossed his glossy, too long hair.

Janet tried changing the subject. “How’s Little Dave doing? He must be smiling and making sounds by now, what’s it like being an uncle?” 

“Pretty cool,” said Big Dave with pride, “until he spits up on your best shirt, I forgot to hang a towel over my shoulder. Now about Thursday..”  ‘Oh alright,” said Janet. “This pennywhistle better be good and loud, there’s always lots of traffic on paydays, mums all over the place, buying and gossiping. What if one of them corners me and asks what I’m doing?”  “Just tell them you’re looking at books and waiting for a friend,” said Big Dave. “Be on the look out for Trevor too, he’s going to be wearing his Dad’s old trench coat with the big inside pockets, he’s going to stuff the sausages in there, as many as he can fit.”

Janet could hear the rest of the gang, all boys, in the other cell. They were laughing and telling jokes about Trevor, how he hadn’t known his Dad didn’t wear the coat anymore because the seams were split on those inside pockets. In amongst the crowd of Mothers buying chops, mince, soup bones etc, Trevor had been stuffing sausages into the pockets as fast as he could, not noticing them falling right out again as the split seams opened up under the weight of them. One of the mothers had pushed past him to get to the display window and accidentally squished a few sausages, that’s how Trevor got caught.

Yelling, “scarper, scarper!” as the Mothers got hold of the coat and Trevor, it was bedlam inside Cartwright’s Butcher Shop as Colin, Big Dave, George and Sean scurried through the crowd of Mothers, making towards the door as old man Cartwright called the police on the phone.

They burst out of the door just in time to see PC Wicks, on his regular beat, stopping to talk to Janet, who looked stunned like a deer in the headlights, glancing from PC Wicks to the boys and back again, wondering if she should blow the whistle or chuck it in the nearest trash bin. PC Wicks noticed the boys too and rather sternly asked Janet if she knew what was going on, as the shiny black police car with two constables inside it, rounded the corner and stopped by Cartwright’s.

Janet burst into tears, so of course PC Wicks knew that she was involved and marched her over to the car.