The things he says in his melodious voice are quite obscene. However, the narrator’s cool composure doesn’t last for long as no one comes to claim the baby! Flabbergasted, she wheels the trolley to the Customer Service Desk seeking their help, where a staff representative tells her that no one has reported a missing baby while observing how much the child looks like the narrator! By this time some other shoppers have also surrounded the two, all of them congratulating the narrator for having such a lovely baby, while she keeps on insisting the child is not hers! But who is going to believe her when the baby calls her “Mammuum” with his little fat arms raised in the air! Surely she must be a stressed-out and under-slept new mom?īy this point of the story, I was also beginning to wonder if the baby, in fact, belonged to the narrator! But then the plot becomes clearer once the narrator leaves the supermarket with the baby, and he starts talking.

The most extraordinary thing happens to her while in the store when she leaves her trolley unattended for a bit to grab some herbs – she returns to find that someone has left their child on her trolley! The narrator describes the baby as the “most embarrassingly beautiful child,” with “very pink and perfectly bow-shaped” lips and big cheeks “like a cupid.” And while she waits for the child’s parent/s to return after realizing their mistake, she imagines how they’d have a good laugh swapping their trolleys before going about their day.

Next up in The First Person and Other Stories is The Child, and it is just as amusing as True Short Story! It begins at a Waitrose supermarket where the story’s unnamed narrator – a young woman – goes to do her weekly shopping during her lunch break.

Autumn ali smith sparknotes