Busking at the Cash Till

By Abass Collier

The hat of a busker is on his heart, not his pocket. It is this busker’s favourite saying whenever he is placing his hat on the pitch to start busking. The hat, though, is always on his head up to the point he gets to his busking lot. This is not what makes this busker peculiar.

Inside the hat, his inscription instructs: DROP YOUR HEART IN.

When he is busking, he thinks he is at the till. When he is at the till, he thinks he is busking. The till is where he spends time at his day job in his local supermarket.

Today is his lucky day, it seems. A commuter has just dropped a fifty pounds note into his hat and is waiting to talk to him. But the busker is too busy, lost in the rhythmic sound of his guitar to take notice of the waiting commuter. The commuter leaves, obviously disappointed.

But when he is at the till, he chats to cheer to an endless stream of busy customers. This has got him into trouble a number of times with his boss.

He only looks down into his hat when his two hours time slot comes to an end. ‘’Oh, my days!’’ he exclaims to himself when he sees a reasonable amount of cash inside the hat.

He starts to do his maths, and soon comes to the conclusion that this is his own till. He starts playing with the idea of firing his boss the next day. The thought makes him high as he empties the contents of his hat into his pocket.

When he puts the hat on his head and starts to walk out of the pitch, he remembers the man who had dropped fifty pounds note into his hat.

‘’Why didn’t you talk to him, Dan,’’ he asks himself over and over. The man could have been anything – a recording studio executive, a bloke who might just want him to play at some sort of gig, or even a jerk who just happen to have had some excess cash in his pocket this afternoon. Whoever the man might have been, missing the opportunity to have chatted with him even if it was just about cheering him up seems to have ruined his day.