“None too bright in the head, that’s what they said of him, that’s what he thought they said, him standing there in the supermarket, on one foot and then the other. Store security, that’s him. Mondays to Fridays 8.30 a.m. till 5.30 p.m. Keep an eye open for shoplifters, the manager had said. Although he’d not seen any, any evidence of any, in all the two years he’d been turning up for work five days a week. Got a job though, his old dad says. Got a job, lad – him calling him lad, and him forty-three. Count your blessings, lad, his dad says.”

From ‘Store Security’ – included in the showcase