Rough Justice

Written by
Mathew Furniss (c) 1999

(584 WORDS)

Frank Peters was angry. He had just emerged from an out of town
supermarket, laden with four full grocery bags, to be confronted by the
distressing sight of his 10 year old daughter standing by the passenger
door of their car, crying uncontrollably.

"It wasn't my fault," she insisted. "It just broke when I tried to turn
it."

Frank looked in dismay at the snippet of metal showing in the car lock,
then to the other half of his car key, still in Carol's hand. "What on
earth are we going to do now?" he snapped. "I've got a semi-final golf
tie to play in less than an hour ... and my clubs are in the
boot."

He shook his head in frustration. "I told you to be careful
Carol!"

After placing the bags on the ground, Frank aimed a long despairing
glare through the car window, focusing ruefully on his jacket lying on
the back seat, and remembered with an ironic sigh, the spare car key
sitting snugly in the pocket.

"Concentration! That's all it takes you know," he chided her. "How many
times have I told you to pay attention to what you're doing?"

He considered calling the Police or the A.A. for help, but both of
these would take what he didn't have: Time.

Frank had started to panic. Winning the golf club championship had been
a long held ambition for him. A dream that was now agonisingly closer
than ever before to being realised, and failure to appear on the first
tee at the allocated time, would result in the match being
automatically awarded to his opponent.

The drastic step of breaking a window to gain entry, had been quickly
dismissed from his thoughts, as it would undoubtedly have caused more
problems than it might have solved at the time, quite apart from the
unwanted expense of repair.

In desperation, he called to a young attendant from the store, who had
been relocating the loose trolleys in the car park, and explained his
predicament. The helpful young man immediately contacted his supervisor
who, after a brief consultation with Frank called the store manager,
who in turn made over the tannoy system, a request for anyone who could
assist in the opening of a locked car door.

This had the result of a local handyman volunteering his services, and
barely ten minutes later under the curious gaze of a sizeable crowd, he
was busy trying to rejoin the broken key in the passenger door, in a
delicate operation with super glue.

While Carol leaned back disconsolate against the car bonnet, head bowed
and staring fixedly at the ground, Frank stood rigid with his arms
folded in helplessness. Agonisingly torn between appreciation for the
workman's efforts, and a growing intolerance with the relentless
passing of time.

He just couldn't resist one more public chastisement of his daughter,
to clarify to the 'spectators' where the fault for this embarrassing
situation lay. "Do you see the trouble you've caused with your
carelessness young lady?" he said sternly. "I just hope you pay more
attention in future."

The bustle of people assembled at one side of the car, were so
engrossed in the proceedings, that no one particularly noticed the
boisterous seven year old boy, who had been watching impatiently with
his mother, until he effortlessly opened the unlocked drivers door,
climbed boldly inside, and gripped the steering wheel gleefully with
both hands.

End