Slipping the spoils of the morning’s activities into his shirt pocket, Mark went the other way across the bridge. When he looked again, the old man wasn’t following and was guiding the kids back down the road.

With a grin on his face, Mark slipped a lone headphone into his ear, then turned the volume of his MP3 player up. He headed into one of the side-streets to the sound of Korn’s ‘Here To Stay’.

Sam Ellison lived with his sister about halfway down the road, but it was a long road so the song had almost finished by the time Mark got there. He knocked on the door twice, paused, then knocked a third time. He stepped into the little paved garden and removed the headphone from his ear.

Sam appeared at an upstairs window. He opened it and called down, “You got the full amount now?”

“Yeah. Open the door, mate,” Mark called back.

Sam came and opened the door wearing only a striped white and green bathrobe. He ushered Mark inside.

Mark followed him into the front room where Sam took out an ice cream tub and prised open the lid.

“Let’s see the money,” he said.

Mark reached down into his jean pockets and found a ten-pound note and a five-pound note. In his shirt pocket he found three one-pound coins, three fifty pence pieces and three twenty pence pieces. He held it out to Sam.

NOTES:
I called the dealer in this bit Sam Ellison, which was the name I used for the main character in this coming of age story I wrote last year. I don't know if I meant it to be the same person. It could be.