Excerpt from Magic Molly book 2: Gloop

Chapter Three

At the Megastore Aunt Matilda parked the car a hundred yards away from the nearest vehicle.

'I have a bit of trouble with parking,' she admitted. 'It's best if I leave it over here.'

Molly bit her lip and politely said nothing, she was just glad to have arrived at the Megastore in one piece.

Once in the store they headed straight for the music department. There was a set of cubicles where customers could listen to tracks before they bought the album. Aunt Matilda asked for the assistant to put the Crypt Kickers CD on in cubicle four.

Molly and Aunt Matilda shared the set of headphones; a thin white cable ran from Molly's left ear to Aunt Matilda's right.

'Which track is best, Molly? I'll get him to play it.'

'Track two,' said Molly. 'Down, down.'

'Down, down,' shouted Aunt Matilda to the assistant.

The sound in the headphones was lowered.

'Turn it up,' yelled Aunt Matilda.

The sound level returned to normal. Aunt Matilda stuck her thumb up to the assistant. He smiled thinly.

'Down Down.' shouted Aunt Matilda.

'Make your mind up lady,' muttered the assistant as he lowered the volume again.

Aunt Matilda burst from the cubicle leaving her half of the headphones swinging in the air.

'Young man,' she said firmly, 'I'm not sure what you are playing at, but kindly leave the volume alone. In fact turn it up a little.'

She returned to the cubicle.

'And please play track two,' she added.

Molly passed half of the headphone set back to Aunt Matilda.

'Ooh, it is good, Molly, you were right,' said Aunt Matilda as she wiggled her hips.

'Please don't dance,' muttered Molly under her breath.

Aunt Matilda began to dance.

'Down, down, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN,' she sang, as she waved her arms in the air.

People began to gather around the music department. Molly pulled Aunt Matilda's sleeve.

'Err, Auntie,' she said pointing at the crowd.

'Dance, Molly,' called Aunt Matilda, 'shake a leg.'

Molly didn't want to shake anything. She wished Aunt Matilda would stop shaking her bits too.

The track finished and Aunt Matilda marched up to the counter to a smattering of applause.

'I'll take that CD young man,' she gasped, 'what an exhilarating tune.'

Molly stared at the floor and prayed for a big hole to appear.

At the checkout counter Aunt Matilda opened her bag to find her purse.

'Where's Wilberforce?' she asked.

Molly didn't know.

'He was here when we came in,' said Aunt Matilda. 'Come on, Molly, we have to find him.'

Aunt Matilda looked around worriedly.

'We had better split up,' she said. 'I'll take frozen and cooked meats; see you at the Deli counter.'

Molly thought it was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. She looked through tinned goods then wandered down past the fish counter. There was no sign of Wilberforce in the bakery either. Suddenly she heard a scream.

'Help, there's a rat in the corn flakes.'

Molly ran for the cereal aisle and pushed her way through the crowd of women running the other way.

'Watch it, dear,' said one elderly lady, 'there's a rat in there, as big as your hat.'

Molly dodged the screaming customers and fought her way through to the corn flakes section. Wilberforce wasn't hard to find. Molly soon spotted his skinny tail sticking out of a jumbo box on the second shelf.  Aunt Matilda arrived a few seconds later. She picked up the box and made her way back to the checkout.

'He's a clever boy is my Wilberforce,' she said to Molly as they walked through the shop. 'He picked a box with 50% extra free.'

*****

The journey home was mainly uneventful. Aunt Matilda sang along to the Crypt Kickers and only stalled the car twice. A policeman did stop the traffic to allow her to get off a roundabout after they had driven round it a dozen times, but all in all is wasn't as scary a ride as Molly had feared.

Mr Miggins made tea while Molly recounted the story of Wilberforce's escape.

'I can't believe the manager banned Wilberforce from the store for life,' said Aunt Matilda. 'He loves going shopping with me. He only escaped because I forgot to top up my bag with corn flakes. He must have got peckish.'