Re: Fess up
Firstly, this incident occurred when I was a minor, therefore I believe I cannot be prosecuted for my “ crime”
Back in nineteen sixty something, I was about six, maybe seven, at primary school, in those days we could have a snack at break time with our school milk, indeed, the school sold some snacks, crisps, biscuits and such, ( yes healthy eh, ), on this particular day , I didn’t have enough money to buy much, just a couple of biscuits, but my classmate, Stuart Grayson, ( there I’ve named him,) , seemed to have plenty, I remember he was able to buy twelve nice, biscuits my favourite , btw, well to a small child this didn’t seem fair, so I decided that , as he had so many , he wouldn’t miss just ONE!, so I took a biscuit and slipped it into my pocket, but, I hadn’t figured on the wrong I did to Stuart, and , to my horror, he told the teacher...
the whole class had to line up and be frisked by the teacher, there was me with my I’ll gotten gains, in my pocket, waiting for the inevitable, and ,was it me, ? Or was the biscuit in my pocket getting hotter?, what could I do..?, as the line edged closer to the teacher, I decided to do the right thing, I sneakily broke the biscuit into small pieces and popped each piece into my mouth and let it dissolve, so as not to appear to be seen chewing, ( clever eh) , finally it was my turn, the teacher patted me down , but could find nothing, I had done it, a victimless crime, Stuart never knew, and I never told anyone, ( until now),
Sometimes, when in the supermarket, I wander down the aisle where the biscuits are, and look at the vast assortment of of deliciousness, until my eyes are drawn to the nice biscuits, I close my eyes and still see the line drawing closer to the searching teacher, patting each of her pupils down , rooting out the master criminal , I still eat nice biscuits, but as I crunch each one, I hear the sound in my head that sounds like, “ you stole Stuart’s biscuit “ over and over, .
Many years later, I was working shifts at rowntrees, one night at the start of a night shift one young lad came from another department to help out, none other than...Stuart Grayson,my chance to tell him perhaps, but I couldn’t, funny thing is, I never saw him again ifor as long as I worked there, was it really him?. Or was it a guilt ridden night shift induced vision, a chance at redemption, closure, ? I’ll never know
There, I’ve confessed,