On Her Trolley

The scenario here is that Lyra does not wish to use the legs that Nature gave her to convey her around the shop, and I do not wish to carry her as my neck is giving me effing gip and frankly I'm over it, and have you tried carrying a child and simultaneously pushing a trolley? I doubt that. You probably have a child that doesn't mind bloody rising in one like a normal child does.

So Lyra furthermore does not wish to share cabin space in the trolley with actual shopping, and she does not wish to use the seat, probably because she doesn't want to look at me, who knows I wouldn't, but maybe just because she wants to see where she's going and whether there are any child-height bargains to be grabbed.

So the compromise that she comes up with, if you can call it a compromise, is that she will use the seat, but backwards, with her legs draped over the chromium seat-back and the blood-supply cut off, pins and needles spreading down her legs as we move from aisle to aisle.