As much as Frank hated the three o’clock rush on weekdays, he despised weekends even more. It didn’t seem possible that the Lolly Shop could get any more people into it than it did on Friday after school but somehow it did. Saturdays were a constant after-school rush, especially on rainy days. The enticing caramel smell lured people in from the street and the warm bubble-bath feeling locked them in. Frank stood staring aimlessly at the massive boxes of Russian Fudge waiting for him to shelve them. He wondered how long it would take until the store was finally exhausted of its fudge supplies. As it turned out, it only took half an hour until the whole stock of Russian Fudge was gone.

Saturday didn’t seem to be coming any where near to an end. People flooded in by the second making the store dangerously full. Shelves began to wobble as hundreds of small children started to become desperate for some sugar. Frank marveled at his fathers never ending smile, Frank couldn’t see any reason to smile. The shop stunk of wet customers, the noise was excruciatingly loud and the little children all had too much energy to stand still. The more Frank thought about it, the more tempted he was to sprint through the little door and out of the city. The only real reason he hadn’t lost his mind yet was the thought of his afternoon visit he took to the hospital on Saturdays. He turned his attention from it and resumed the dull task of re-stocking all the empty sweet containers.

As the day rolled on, agonizingly slowly, customers finally began to thin out. Frank noticed his fathers smile becoming more and more forced as the day came to a close. He found that very odd as it was only now that Frank saw any reason to smile; within the hour he would be on his way to visit his mother. He felt in such a good mood that when one particularly boisterous twelve year old knocked a small box of Fizzing Sherbet Straws off the counter, not only did he not kick the boy out of the shop but he cleaned up the mess himself. Frank felt quite proud of his kindness. Apparently so did his father as Frank was let out of the shop fifteen minutes early.

Finally, with a new found vigor Frank strolled down the wet road on the way to the bus stop. It seemed that the day was looking up for him, perhaps he could cope with another week or two at the lolly shop after all. The bus was crammed with business people returning home forcing Frank to stand, wedged between an overly stout man who kept flicking his umbrella in a fashion that sprayed Frank’s legs with rain water and a stick-thin woman with a pointed nose who looked to Frank like someone who could do with a good slap. Eventually Frank snapped at the stout man to hold his umbrella still, the man looked terribly offended and got off the bus at the next stop, still sniffing and muttering about the rudeness of teenagers. Despite that, Frank was still in good spirits when the hospital came into view.