The Saturday Stall

By nine o’clock, Zara and Max had arranged twenty painted bookmarks on their market table. There were birds, boats and one rather lopsided dinosaur. Dad unfolded two chairs behind them. “Ready?” he asked. Max straightened the dinosaur. “As ready as we’ll ever be.”

People stopped at the fruit stall. They stopped at the bread stall. They walked straight past the bookmarks. Max checked the little price card: one dollar each. “Perhaps everyone has finished all their books,” he said. Zara watched a man buy an enormous bag of oranges. “Everyone?”

At last, Mrs Green stopped with her shaggy brown dog. “These are lovely,” she said. “Have you got one with a dog?” Zara looked over the table. Birds. Boats. Dinosaur. “No,” she said. Mrs Green’s dog sat on her shoe as if he had been expecting that answer.

Max found three blank strips of card beneath the table. “We could paint him now,” he whispered. Zara looked at the dog’s floppy ears and untidy fringe. “If you can wait a few minutes,” she told Mrs Green, “we could try.” “I’m getting a cup of tea,” said Mrs Green. “He’ll supervise.”

Dad stood with the dog while Zara painted. Max mixed a softer brown on a spare plate. The dog turned his head just as Zara reached his nose. “Could you look this way?” she asked. He yawned. Max laughed. “Excellent. Now you can paint his tongue as well.”

Mrs Green returned and held the bookmark beside the dog. “The fringe is exactly right,” she said. A boy at the next table leaned over. “Could you do my cat?” Zara glanced at the three blank strips. One was already used. “We can do two more today,” she said. “Have you got a picture?”

By lunchtime, the last blank strip was drying. A girl had bought the dinosaur because, she said, it looked like her uncle. Max counted the coins while Dad helped pack the brushes. “Next Saturday,” Max said, “we’ll bring more blank card.” “And a bigger brown paint pot,” Zara added.

As they folded the table, a man paused beside them. “Do you paint pets?” he asked. “We do,” said Zara. “Good. I’ve got a very handsome lizard.” Max waited until the man had gone. “Perhaps we should practise dinosaurs.”