Terror On The High Street

[poliphilo]

We'd had our eyes tested and chosen new frames for our new spectacles and were just about to pay when the fire alarm started clanging and the manager hustled everyone out of the shop. Smoke had been detected on an upper floor. Customers were also being cleared from the shops to left and right. "Please keep away from the windows," said the person who'd been put in charge of the evacuation- and I had a vision of an immense fireball blossoming out into the street- as in the movies. A fire engine arrived. Ailz wanted to hang around and watch the fire brigade go about its business but I'd had quite enough excitement and- with her permission- left her to enjoy the spectacle while I wandered up the road and visited the Oxfam Bookshop- where I bought a copy of Kenneth Grahame's The Golden Age with illustrations by W.H. Shepherd. By the time I got back to SpecSavers the crisis was over and Ailz was back inside proceeding with our business. She told me that someone had told her that the smoke had originated in the staff common room and that just before she opened up again the manager had assembled the staff in a back room to give them the benefit of her thoughts ...