I was talking to my mother (alias Supergran) beside the racks of freshly baked bread at Lidl in Newton Abbot when it happened. My hand was reaching for a bread bag on the shelf underneath the French baguettes while Mum was two feet away checking out the pizza rolls and bruschetta novelties (and asking what they were) when suddenly an arm appeared between us.

The arm was long and brown, and tattooed on the shoulder and biceps. The arm shot out so quickly, and was so close, that I couldn’t make out the design of the ink illustration. The one thing I knew for sure was that it was young, smooth skinned and… muscular! The fine hairs on the sun-tanned arm glinted gold under the neon lights in the bread aisle as it stretched towards the baguettes.

“Excuse me ladies,” said a male voice.

My eyes followed the arm up to his face. He was perhaps twenty-four, had blond curly hair cut neat and short, and he wore a small beard on his chin. He grabbed a baguette, already in cellophane, and withdrew his arm. There was an empty space where the arm had been and Mum and I were left staring at one another.

I wondered what Mum was thinking… Would she comment on the tattoos and the rude intrusion? I hoped she wouldn’t tell him off in a Supergran manner. Well, he did excuse himself.

My ninety-five year old mother, dumbfounded and wide-eyed, paused for a long moment as she made sense of the arm and how to respond. At last she found her voice. 

“WOW!” she exclaimed sufficiently loud to draw attention from all the shoppers in Lidl, including the young man who was by now past the bread ovens.

The blond turned and smiled a lovely white smile before dashing off in embarrassment. I don’t expect he finished all his shopping in Lidl last Saturday.