The town bus pulled up at the bus stop ten minutes late, as it always did. Today was no exception and Lynne didn't mind. She stepped onto the pavement with a happy air about her. She purposefully walked down the street and up to her house. Once inside she walked straight through into the kitchen and saw the Doctor standing at the stove and Sarah sitting beside him on the worktop. He was boiling milk in a saucepan and Adrian was busy gathering mugs.
"Hello. Making cocoa are we?" Lynne said merrily and stroked both children their heads.
"Yes Lynne. You can have some too." Sarah said.
"I'd love that, thank you." Lynne took her coat and shawl off and hung it on the hat stand in the hallway. Then she joined the kids at the table as the Doctor poured them a mug full of hot chocolate milk.
"And how did your interview go?" he asked Lynne while he stood behind her gently massaging her shoulders.
"Oh, brilliantly. Yes. Apparently I am just who they needed. I am going back tomorrow to sign the contract and then I can start work straight away. Isn't that great?"
"Yeah, fantastic."
"And all because of your good advice." she said to him lovingly and as reply he kissed her gently on the brow. Then he sat at the table and drank his hot cocoa, while Sarah told the story of her wondrous fieldtrip to Lynne all over again.
"Oh, Doctor. Before I start making dinner, can you get some groceries for me?" Lynne asked him.
"Sure. What do you need?"
"I put the list on the magnetic board and my wallet is still in the shopping bag." she said and resumed listening to Sarah's story.
5. Old ladies gossip
The Doctor strolled to the grocery store nearby with his hands buried deep in his pockets as usual, but this time more to keep them warm that out of habit and he never cared much for wearing gloves. The bright orange flowered shopping bag dangled from his shoulder and it did not match with his multicoloured knitted scarf at all.
He quickly gathered everything from Lynne's shopping list, but when he came to the cash register there was a huge cue. There were at least 15 people with filled trolley's waiting behind the only cash register in the store. With no other option, he joined the line behind three chatting old ladies, who by the looks of it had just done their monthly grocery shopping. "How in the world are they going to carry all that home?" he wondered.
While the girl behind the till worked up a sweat trying to check out all the groceries as fast as she could in order to shorten the cue, the old ladies chatted away.
"Disappeared; without a trace."
"Oh really?" "How awful."
"The parents are awfully worried."
"Hm. I'm sure they are. It is getting cold at night, you know."
"Oh, I know, awfully cold indeed. I hope they find the child before tonight."
"Yes. How terrible."
"Did you know about that new teacher of theirs?"
"No. What about her?"
"Oh, yes. Strange type she is, telling the kids about gnomes and fairies."
"But she don't stop there, oh no. She takes them on a trip to the woods, you know, over at-, anyway; She must have hired some little people in furry suits because they all swear they have met them leprechauns for real. How about that?"
"Well, how about that? It's them country people, ain't it. They think we don't know nothin'. That they can make fools out of us. Well, we'll have non of that!"
"Very right you are, my dear. Absolutely right."
"Yes, absolutely right."
The Doctor was thankful that the girl behind the till had done her best to hurry up, because the tree old ladies's chattering was getting unbearable to listen to. Luckily she had just checked out their groceries before they could start another gossip session. It was the Doctors turn to pay now. He wished the girl a pleasant evening and returned home.