A pair of Shoes. Magpie#16

Elise glanced in the charity shop window as she hurried along in the rain. There in the middle of a display of china was a pretty little blue jug, something she had been looking for to join her other blue china on her shelf in her kitchen. It was perfect and only a couple of pounds. She could just about afford that, now that she didn’t have a job money was tight. A bell rang as she pushed the door open and the woman behind the counter looked up from what she was doing and smiled at Elise.’ Can I help you,? She asked.

Elise pointed to the jug, ‘Could I look at the little jug please?’ She asked as she stood her umbrella in a tub near the door. The woman put the jug on the counter so Elise could examine it. The shop had a large box just in front of the counter filled with oddments and Elise had to lean across it to get near to the jug.

‘I am so sorry,’ said the woman, ‘I was just stock taking when you arrived and I moved this box so I could go through its contents, we have such a lot of stuff brought in, some days we just pop into boxes till we have a quiet moment to go through them all.’
Elise glanced down at the box’s contents; on the top tied together with string were a pair of black suede shoes. They looked vaguely familiar and she picked them up and looked at them more closely. Were they, could they be her Mother’s? Her sister had said she had got rid of a lot of stuff after her Mother’s death and Elise hadn’t bothered to ask where or what. The whole thing was too much to take after the funeral. Later she had wished she had taken something for herself..... to have, to hold , something that Mum had really liked, and she had loved those shoes. They were her favourite and she always had said that when she wore them she thought she was like a queen. They made her feel regal.

When Richard had arrived home from work tired and ready to eat, he was pleased that the smell of a casserole greeted his nostrils as he entered their kitchen. ‘Hello Love,’ he said,’ Something smells very nice.’

Elise smiled, ‘I have been slaving away all day cooking just for you.’

Richard smiled back and kissed her, it was their joke that Elise and cooking just didn’t go together, but a casserole was just one of the things she could do and while there was this rainy wintery weather, a casserole was their evening meal every evening. He sat down at the table while Elise brought the casserole to it.
Looking at the shelves behind her he noticed something strange on the shelf. ‘Is that a pair of shoes on the shelf?’ he asked.

Elise, her face lit with smiles, answered, ‘ No its a pretty blue jug, I saw it in a charity shop in the High Street and had to buy it. Its got quite a story , so come on eat up and I ‘ll tell you all about it.’

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