Charity Shop Blues

‘It’s a bargain’, she said. ‘Doreen had one similar. Look, it still has the original label.’

‘It’s a nice cardigan,’ agreed her friend. ‘I wonder why it was never worn.’

‘It might not have gone with their outfit. Maybe it was a shop reject. It could have been an unwanted Christmas present. They might have forgotten about it, and then had a clear out.’

Neither said what they really thought.

She went home and put the cardigan in the wardrobe, with mothballs.

It hung there unworn for years until the day she died.

Then it went to a charity shop.