The New Friend

There was something very different this morning when the trolleys opened their eyes.

"What's this?" said Wobble excitedly. "I do believe it's snow" replied Trundle.

"Woohoo" screamed Slik "I love snow" and started to wheel himself out of the trolley park. "You'll get stuck" said Trundle, and he did!

"Why don't you listen to Trundle, Slik?" said Posy. Slik reversed back into the trolley park feeling a bit silly.

"I wonder where Brian is" said Trundle, "I do hope he's alright, he's usually here by now".

"There aren't any customers yet" said Wobble "don't think we're going to be very busy today". Just as he said that he felt something cold land on him and heard some laughter. There were some children playing in the car park and one had just thrown a snowball. "Yippee, I'll play" said Slik, "that's if I can get out".

A small girl came over to see the trolleys. "Hello, she said "would you like to play with us?" "We want to build a snowman".

"I do" said Slik "but I can't get out, none of us can"

"That's alright" said the small girl, "we can help you". "My name's Evie by the way and this is my friend Tom" pointing to a young boy trudging over to them.

"I know what we can do" said Evie, "there's a spot over there where there isn't so much snow, that's where we can build the snowman. We've been playing over there and have flattened the snow and used some of it to make snowballs. You can help us by carrying over the snow and this will help you too as it will clear some of the snow from around your trolley park".

"That sounds good to me" said Trundle.

"Me first, me first"! screached Slik. Tom and Evie started picking up lots of snow and piling it into the back of the trolleys. They slowly cleared a pathway between the trolleys and where they wanted to build the snowman.

"Quick, we have to move the snow before it melts" said Posy so each trolley moved carefully with the snow piled up in their backs.

"Oooooh, it's very slippery" said Wobble. "Yes", said Trundle "we must move slowly so that no one gets hurt".

The snow was cleared from around the trolley park and there was a nice big pile where the snowman was to be built.

Tom and Evie rolled and rolled the snow into a big ball.

"How exciting" said Posy. "Hurry up" said Slik, "I can't wait to see our new friend". "You have to be patient" said Posy. "Yes Slik" said Trundle. "It won't take long".

The snowman's body was ready and then they started making his head. Once this was made everyone stared at him.

"He's not really complete" said Posy, "doesn't look much like a man". With that Tom appeared with three stones he'd found and put them on the front of the snowman's body.

"There, he has some buttons for his jacket now" said Tom.

"That's more like it" said Posy. "He needs a face" said Trundle and Wobble.

"Where's Slik gone?" said Posy. "Oh no where's he disappeared to?"

"Look what I found" he shouted. "It must have dropped out of someone's shopping bag yesterday." Evie walked carefully over to Slik and found a bright orange carrot on the floor. She picked it up and took it over to the others.

"A nose!!" everyone said. "Well done Slik". Slik felt rather pleased with himself and couldn't stop grinning.

Evie found another 2 stones and these were used for the eyes and a piece of twig for the mouth. Tom took his hat off and put it on the snowman's head.

"He does look good" said Evie. "Yes" said Trundle "and we all helped to make him".

"We have to go now" said Evie, "it's getting late". "We'll come back tomorrow" said Tom "and see our new friend.

"Bye bye" said the trolleys. "See you tomorrow".

"Look, I can see Brian" said Trundle.

"Brian, Brian look what we've made". "He's splendid" said Brian The Trolleyman. "Have you all had fun today?"

"Yes" said Wobble, "we played with some children and have made a new friend for us".

"I have to shovel the snow out of the carpark so that the customers can get in. Mr Selwell asked me to do it as nobody can get to the supermarket to buy any food".

"Oh no" said Posy. "You won't touch our snowman will you?"

"I'll tell you what" said Brian The Trolleyman "as he looks so good I'll work around him and leave him there til the morning".

"Thank you Brian" said all 4 trolleys at once.

Brian The Trolleyman moved all the snow away from the carpark and customers started to use the supermarket and were very careful not to disturb the snowman.

The day ended and Brian The Trolleyman moved all the trolleys into the trolley park.

"Night night snowman" they all said and went to sleep looking forward to seeing Evie and Tom again the next day.

Posy was the first to wake up in the morning to the sound of pitter pattering. "Oh no" she shouted

"What's the matter?" said the others with a start. They soon knew what was wrong as they looked over to where the snowman was and just saw a hat, a carrot, a piece of twig and 5 stones on the floor. Posy started to cry. "It's raining" said Trundle "The snow has all melted, taking our new friend away too".

"What about Tom and Evie?" said Posy. "They'll come back and he won't be here" she said sniffing.

At that moment Brian The Trolleyman arrived and he could see straight away what was wrong. "Ah don't you worry" he said. "He'll be back one day, you'll not know when but he'll be back, I promise".

Posy dried her eyes as this made her feel better, Brian The Trolleyman was always right.

They all looked forward to the day the snow came back along with Tom and Evie and their new friend the snowman.