DIARY OF A TEENAGE MILKMAN

I put the whole incident out of my head that night as I finished the rounds collecting payments from the remaining homes on my route, I’d forgotten all about it by the time I delivered her milk the following morning, and on subsequent mornings for the next week. A week passed and I was out on my evening rounds collecting payments once again, I wasn’t until I was about to knock on the door that the promised tip once again entered my head. I wondered if she’d even remember the short conversation of the previous week. Quickly deciding that she wouldn’t and that in all likelihood she wouldn’t even answer the door herself, I knocked. I say knocked but I had only raised my fist to give the door a rap when it was opened from within. It was the daughter, dressed by the look of things for a night on the town.
“I’m in a bit of a hurry” she said before I could even open my mouth, “could you come back next week, I’m just on the way out” It was more a statement of fact rather than a request, she wasn’t asking, she was telling, again, before I could answer, the mother’s voice came from within the house. “Is that the milk-boy?” I could hear her call from inside the house, “tell him to come back once he’s finished his collections and I’ll pay him myself. “Rather than wait for the daughter to repeat her mother’s request I just told her I’d heard and I’d be back in an hour for the money, then I left. The home was in a three storey block and I had two other customers on the floors above so I took the stairs to the next floor, the daughter’s voice echoing from the landing below, telling her mother that I’d be back later, I heard the door slam and the sound of the daughter’s heels disappearing into the distance as I reached my next customer’s door. I almost forgot to go back, it was only the fact that I had to pass close to the building on my way home that reminded me that I’d said I would return, “a lot of bother for what will probably be a pretty small tip” I thought to myself as I entered the building and headed for the door, I was already pretty fed up with the trek through several neighbourhoods that evening and was ready for home, I still had some last minute schoolwork to catch up on which had to be handed in before the end of the week. I knocked at the door.