Fake or fortune, George?
move enough boxes to reach the light switch.
“Okay, I take your point,” Cindy said as she dragged out a bag of newspapers she’d kept because she hadn’t finished the crosswords. “Some of this stuff will have to go.”
They discovered boxes for kitchen gadgets they no longer owned, their old frame tent (still in good condition), two cans of wood stain that would be useful to tart up the fence and off-cuts of lino from the bathroom floor.
Although she wouldn’t admit it, Cindy began to sympathise with George’s claim that most of the items they’d saved never did come in handy. Except maybe those knitting needles that could be used to mark out rows of seeds in the garden…
They set aside the things they wanted to keep and filled the boot of the car with the junk.
“Shall I take this lot down to the tip while you sort out a bit of lunch?” George asked.
“It’s a deal,” Cindy said. She didn’t like going to the tip because it upset her to see all those potentially useful odds and ends going to landfill. Such a waste.
But she was beginning to see that having some space in the garage was a good thing. It would be nice to be able to walk to the freezer without banging her shins on boxes.
After lunch they filled the boot of car again – twice. Cindy was determined to find the vase. After all the hard work they were going to need a holiday. She would love a few days by the sea somewhere. France, maybe. She’d found a handy phrase book a few minutes ago. What had
George done with that?
“In here,” he told her, pointing to the ‘keep’ pile.
There was a third category of things that Cindy admitted they would never use, but George considered too good to throw away. He suggested: “We could give this lot to a charity shop.”
Cindy’s hand flew to her mouth and she wailed: “Oh no! I’ve just remembered what happened to that vase!”
“Are you saying you gave it to a charity shop?”
“Sorry! Yes, I did! But it was all your fault,” Cindy replied. “After you took my old athletics trophy to the tip, I thought I’d get rid of some of your stuff so I took it to Oxfam…”
Her voice trailed off as George produced her prized athletics trophy and held it aloft.
“You don’t think I’d throw away something of sentimental value do you? The stuff I took to the tip that time was just rubbish I cleared to make space for a storage cupboard.”
Overcome with remorse, Cindy hugged him. “Oh, I do love you and I’m so sorry about your vase and our holiday!”
“I reckon it was only a repro, anyway. And we’ve still got the tent. Fancy a camping holiday instead?” Cindy ginned. “Why not?” “Pity we got rid of the sleeping bags and the gas stove,” George said, sighing.
“We didn’t! I put them in the attic. We’ll probably need an even longer holiday after we’ve cleared that out, too!”
‘It upset her to see potentially useful odds and ends going to landfill’