The Runaway Shopping Cart

It's Thursday, and it's 5:30 in the afternoon. Dylan is walking home from school. He wants to get home quickly, because his favorite show starts at six. He is crossing the supermarket parking lot. It's on a hill.

Suddenly, he hears a loud noise. A shopping cart is rolling down the hill! It's full of food: bread, eggs, apples and a big cake. Nobody is pushing it. It's going faster and faster, and the busy street is at the bottom of the hill.

At the top, a woman is shouting. "My cart! Please stop it!" Dylan drops his bag and runs. He is running very fast. On the street, the cars are moving slowly. The cart is very close to them now.

Dylan jumps and grabs the handle. The cart stops just in time, one meter from the street. An apple falls out and rolls away under a car. The eggs are fine. The cake is fine too.

The woman is running down the hill. Dylan looks at her, and then he laughs. It's Ms. Kowalczyk, his PE teacher!

"Dylan!" she says. "Thank you! And wow, you're really fast today. In my class, you always walk." She takes out a pen and writes something on her shopping list. Then she shows it to him: "Dylan, running: 10 out of 10." Dylan walks home slowly, and he still gets there before six.