When Shopping Can Be Fun............

Hullo ma wee blog,

Walking along a line of shops at Edinburgh Fort shopping center, we're heading to Waterstones where I'm about to spend some Christmas book tokens.  From behind a noise approaches and I hear a voice call out,

"That's far enough ahead Helen!"

At the same time a child rushes past in a whirl of hair and skinny legs. She's exuberantly pushing a small pram with a doll in it, so fast the front wheels are off the ground. She's wearing a brown suede coat with a fur trimmed hood but the hood is down and the coat is unbuttoned. She has blonde hair trailing from beneath one of those Peruvian style knitted hats, the ones with ear flaps and woolen pig tails that hang down - or would if she wasn't moving so fast. By the time I register these details and how small she is she's about 15 feet ahead of us.

From behind her mother calls her name again, a bit louder and elongated by exasperation to an upwardly sliding note.

Helen pulls up short and with a twirl turns to face her Mum and us. Beneath her coat she has a pastel pink jumper and a green skirt above blue tights that end in tan suede boots trimmed at the top with fur.  There she stands, momentarily frozen, beaming a smile back that says "I hear you" as she doffs her Peruvian cap with all the style of a Shakespearean actor on the stage. She plops her hat perfectly back on her head and giggles as she waits for her Mum to catch up.

She's a yard of nonsense, three feet of mischief. I may never have seen her before and may never see her again but my world today is a better place because she's been in it.

Thanks Helen......

Listening to Keane, 'Everybody's Changing