The Day Mr Green Died

by R J Dent

It was a hot afternoon in the middle of July when Mr Green died.

          Mrs Green got off the bus carrying two heavy carrier bags. She had nearly got to her front door when she realized she hadn’t got her front door key.

          As she stood in her garden (not really looking at her tidy front garden with its neatly-trimmed, but dry hedges, its manicured but parched lawn, and its heat-wilted flowers) Mrs Green remembered that George had the keys. Just before they had left the house that morning, to catch the town bus, George had put his small bunch of keys into the left hand pocket of his waistcoat and patted the pocket, as was his habit. His action had persuaded Mrs Green not to take her own keys with her.

          On the bus, Mrs Green had talked about the shortcomings of some of the other passengers (in a not-so-low voice) to her friend, Eileen Connegar. George (showing his usual disinterest in her conversation and her continual application and reapplication of make-up) had looked out of the window of the lumbering double-decker bus, enjoying the view of the slowly passing sun-warmed fields. Mrs Green hated travelling by bus, but as neither she nor George could drive, and their finances wouldn’t stretch to paying for taxis, she endured it. To compensate, she always had something scathing to say about the people she was forced to travel with.

          Upon arriving in the town centre, she had given the key no more thought, despite seeing George give his pocket another tap. Perhaps she should have given it some thought when George announced he was going to stay in town and shop for a new pair of drill trousers. Perhaps he should have remembered too. But he hadn’t and he’d walked along to the shops with the forgotten key in his waistcoat pocket.

          And now that she was back from her excursion, Mrs Green was locked out of her own home. She was mildly irritated about the situation – and more than a little annoyed with George, despite realizing that it wasn’t all George’s fault. She was partly to blame.