"Clem" - insta-yarn

Clem knew where to find the milk and bread that the Patel Brothers stocked for the few “Aussie” customers still in the suburb, and he’d head straight there. At least, that’s what he told the boys in their high-viz vests at the Wenty pub down the street when they’d rib him for just going in. Most of them’d go all the way to Parra nowadays for the “proper” supermarket, whatever that was.  And, he didn’t tell them that he’d talk to Aasha that ran the market’s own henna parlour about how she remembered all those patterns, or that he knew her name meant "hope" in Hindi. Or, about trying the samosa, pakora and bhaji at the market’s snack counter; they just shat all over the pineapple fritter at the takeaway. Clem especially didn’t tell them about the elephant statues and incense sticks in the religious aisle, or the pink, purple and orange powders to throw at each other on Holi.