The Corner Shop

The elderly man had been coming to The Glen for some time walking up and down the street eating meals at Millie’s and generally just getting the feel of the place. His wife had died and he was left alone in the old house knocking around listening to his echoes. He’d come to the decision he was going to have to move on. He was still relatively healthy and without her to take care of he had nothing to do. He was a retired professor with an active mind and he missed being around people.

Henry Jessup stood in front of the solicitor’s office and looked across the street at the corner building. It was unoccupied waiting for someone. He walked across the street and looked in the window it reminded him of the corner shop he used to go to in his old neighborhood as a child. He would buy candy and soft drinks, paperback books, an ice cream cone, a liter of milk and when older a pack of cigarettes. Turning around he looked up the street there was a grocery about to open where these things would be available…but still.

They called them convenience stores nowadays he missed the old familiar shops. Could he do it how hard would it be? He turned and went back across the street and looked in the window of the solicitors office there was a woman at a desk.

"Ah…hello," he said in his soft spoken mild mannered way.

"Hello may I help you?" Miss Peeg asked

"Well…I don’t know…it’s the corner shop."

"The corner shop…but there is no corner shop sir." Miss Peeg raised her brows

"I know," he chuckled, "but I think there ought to be…don’t you?"