The sign above the door to the combined general store and post office read PLEASE KEEP CLOSED – AIRCON RUNNING in slanted texta, but if it was going it was losing against the hazy late-summer heat.
Mina remembered the blast of cold air when they pushed open the door as kids – usually when their mother, worn down packing a dozen errands into a single trip into town, agreed to stop for an ice cream. Either the air conditioner had grown too old, or electricity prices too high, or Mrs Gilligan had hit that age where skin stretched over bone and the hottest day was too cool for comfort.
Mina supposed she could ask, but when you asked people personal questions they felt comfortable asking them back.
‘You here for your delivery, darl?’ Mrs Gilligan asked.
The General was closer to a convenience store than a supermarket, but it was still the only place in Nannine to buy groceries. She’d felt awkward the first few times she turned up to collect a package that was clearly a bulk load of dry goods and cans. But Mrs Gilligan had never commented, never even gave her a sideways look.
Mina preferred the people who did comment. At least when a person sniped to her face, she knew exactly where they stood. The ones who seemed nice could stay a question mark forever.
‘It’s in the back,’ Mrs Gilligan said, pushing herself up off the stool. ‘I’ve checked the attached invoice, and there are a couple of items missing.’ She slid the invoice across the counter. ‘I do have these all in stock, at the moment.’
Mina skimmed the list, hoping it would be the junk food she’d added on impulse. Or the batteries; they could wait another six weeks. But no.
The missing items were vital. The canned beans. Two out of the five bags of dried lentils. And the ground cumin. She drummed her fingers on the counter, doing the maths in her head. The cumin was the key to a lot of recipes, particularly the deep pantry rummages she leaned on in the last days of her grocery cycle. Some days she was nearly out, but couldn’t face the trek into town. Those days had made her an expert in the sort of cooking that would have made her great- and great-greatgrandmothers proud…
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