Mellow Yellow

AUTHOR :   Jenny Robson

A cold blast of wind shot Adderley Street, but Mess just laughed.  He had his cardboard box.  It was really a brilliant box, the best he had every found.  “Tonight I sleep warm,” he said out loud.  “Tonight I sleep in my own Holiday Inn.”

As he settled himself in the narrow alley behind the baker, he wondered how the others were doing.  He was wonderfully warm and dry here in his secret place, but he missed being with the other Cement-Mixers.  It was nice to talk and joke a bit before you fell asleep.  But he shrugged and wriggled down deeper into his box.  “Hey, Mellow Yellow, you can’t have it all, ou pellie,” he told himself.

Then, reaching down under his yellow jersey, as he did every night of his life, no matter where he was sleeping, he pulled out the small, flat tobacco tin that hung close to his heart all day long.  Slowly he clicked the tin open and took out the green paper.  He unfolded it, gently smoothing out the creases.  The dim light from the baker window shone down on his paper with its lines and lines of tiny black typing.,  He held it in front of him, willing those tiny squiggles and circles and lines to speak to him.  But they remained silent, keeping their secrets.

“One day, I’ll read what you say,” he told the green paper.  “One day I’ll know everything you know. You just wait!”