remote cards

Stopped for pizza on the way home. The shop has four customers. Two male kids, who are being loud smart arses. A young girl, who wears a hood up even inside, has low slung jeans, who has that air of too young and just old enough going on. And a man. They have an existing banter going on, while the guys working there just look on, contributing only when called to. The guy calls the older of the boys “a cheeky man” or something after a particular comment, collecting their orders and leaving the kid shouts “I ain’t no man, I’m only 13, how could I be a man?” And he makes it sound like an excuse he has used for getting out of trouble a dozen times before. The man complains about a car, earlier, outside the pizza shop, that didn’t get out of the way of a fire engine. The pizza guy says, yeah, that red one. The girl tries to understand why it’s a big deal. The guy tries to explain how lives can depend on reaction time. The girl asks whether there was anyone killed, the guy explains how it was actually a false alarm at the school. An idea which manages to confuse the girl, so no one was at risk? But they could have been! He insists. So you’re a fireman? She asks. No, I’m a fire investigator. I go in after the fire and work out how it started. Oh. Her dad pulls upside in a van, she complains, he is getting another van, it annoys her. Why is that, vans are good, the man tells her. But none of my friends can get a lift in a van! As though it were obvious. Then she turns to the pizza guy - is my pizza not ready?? He checks on the pizzas. Why’ve you put on two? She asks, as though he is stupid. I only ordered one. The fire guy laughs, points at me, because he ordered a pizza as well. She looks at me, a little shy after all her loud mouthed behaviour - did you? Yeah, I admit, I did. And that seems to be ok, she nods, looks away.