OLWG #210- The Bull at Mirhead

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

Strolling the Mirhead high street, Sonia began feeling a bit peckish. She decided to stop in at “The Bull” for a bite to eat. There was a rumpled and ancient man at the bar. Only a single table appeared occupied, near the front window.
Sonia recognized Marie Clarke, the barmaid, and waved to her. Marie’s mum worked at the Marks and Sparks there in Mirhead. She had done for years. Sonia was not close with the Clarkes but knew them well enough to enquire about the family when they chanced to encounter one another in town.
“Hey there, Marie,” Sonia acknowledged, “how’s your mum?” She took a seat at the counter.
Marie’s eyes darted quickly right, where three middle-aged men sat at the small table, not speaking.
“She’s good, she’s good, thanks,” her eyes flicked back to the small table and the men. She shook her head from side to side, almost imperceptibly.
With a questioning look on her face, Sonia asked for a Stilton ploughman and a ginger tonic.
“Of course,” Marie said as she moved through the swinging door back to the kitchen. When she came back a few seconds later, she advised, “Patrick will have that right out for you.” She turned her attention to the three men, “You gents ready to order?”
They all mumbled incoherent responses as Marie pulled a notepad and pencil from her apron pocket. Sonia tuned them out and played with her phone until Patrick came out of the kitchen with her lunch in hand. He yelled at Marie to fetch the ginger tonic, set the plate down in front of Sonia, spun on his heel and disappeared back the way he had come.
Sonia picked up her hunk of rustic bread to tear off a piece and there, hastily scrawled on the plate, in black marker the single word, “HELP!” She tore off a small fragment of bread and set the remainder back down, carefully covering the plea written on the plate. She called out.
“Marie, I have that CD in the car. The one I promised to pick up for your mum. Can you get it to her if I leave it with you?”
“Of course I can. Mum’s been quite excited to get it.”
“Let me run back out to the car and fetch it then.” Sonia pulled her cell from her bag as soon as she left the front door. Sonia dialled ‘999’ as she walked to the car park.