1) The Collector by Peter Winy.

 

1 August 1st

Yes, this is a supermarket. It's big. There aren't any supermarkets at home. We don't need them now. Everything is very cheap here. Well, it's all new. Look at this! Kellogg's Cornflakes, £1.79! I can sell this packet at home for 5,000 units, maybe 6,000. But I don't want this one. It's got a picture from Star Trek on it.
I'm looking for a Kellogg's Cornflakes packet, but I need the 500 gram packet with a picture of a dinosaur on the back. Those packets are from July and August 1993.
It's August 1st, 1993 today. The twentieth-century film Jurassic Park is in the cinemas this week. It's a new film, and the pictures of dinosaurs are on everything. They're on packets of cornflakes, magazines, comics. All these packets here have got the Star Trek picture.
Maybe I can ask. There's a young woman near the packets of coffee. She's taking more packets of coffee from a box. She's wearing a green coat. She works in this supermarket. I can ask her.
Me  Excuse me, madam.
Woman Sorry?
Me  Excuse me, madam. I'm looking for the cornflakes.
Woman They're over there. You're standing next to
them.
Me  You don't understand. I want a packet with a dinosaur picture. A 500 gram packet.
Woman Oh! For your children. They all love  Jurassic Park.
Me Yes. That's right. For my children. They love the film.
Woman We haven't got any. We're going to get some tomorrow. Come back then.
Me Tomorrow? What time?
Woman The food arrives at six o'clock or seven o'clock in the morning. We open at eight.
Me Thank you, madam.
Woman Are you English?
Me Er ... no. I'm ... I'm ... a visitor. Why?
Woman You say strange things. 'Madam'. No one says 'madam' in a supermarket...
This is terrible. Can I wait for tomorrow? I don't like it here. It's cold and dirty. And my arm is hurting. But I need that packet. I can get 300,000 units for that packet at home. The dinosaur picture on that packet is by Kate Hermann. She's a very famous artist at home. Many people collect food packets with her pictures on them, but they haven't got the dinosaur picture. No one has got that picture. Kate Hermann's picture is famous, because the colours of the dinosaurs are correct. Dinosaur pictures usually have all the colours wrong. We know that now.

master@onlinenglish.ru