Write-In 2019: 'Red Snappers on the Number 47' by Jennifer Cousins

I was next to him on the bus. He asked me where the fish market was.

I’m buying a box of red snappers and a kilo of hake, he said.

Oh, I said, that’s nice. What are snappers?

No idea, he said. I’m actually a painter and decorator.

And I’m a nurse, I said, but I’m not buying red snappers and a kilo of hake.

Well, this woman whose house I’m painting, wants the snappers for tonight and she’s laid up.

Lucky she’s got you then, I said.

I also paint properly – you know, and draw. I draw for my grandson.

He scrabbled in his pocket for a piece of paper and drew a passable representation of a fish.

But is this a red snapper? I asked.

Species unknown, he said. Could be a hake of course.

Not bad, I said.

I used to be a car mechanic, he said.

Oh, I said. What did you buy when you were a car mechanic?

Funny you should ask that, he said...