A Narrow Escape

Wanted: Lady volunteer to be sawn in half...

Here’s how it all started. You’ll remember my mentioning Michael, who met Mrs Beasley, our charity shop manager, in a bookshop while they were both reaching for a copy of Far from the Madding Crowd. They are now officially an item – and, what is more, Michael has started volunteering in the shop.

Here we are, then. Scene 1: The shop. Michael and I are standing behind the counter, and nothing much is happening…

Now, if you are a regular reader, I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying to yourself, ‘Do they actually ever manage to sell anything in this ruddy shop? If they’re not standing behind the counter at a loose end – usually watching rain hammer against the windows – they’re in the back room drinking tea.’

Allow me to reassure you on this point. We are sometimes quite busy, but ‘being quite busy’ is not the stuff of which exciting Woman’s Weekly adventures are made.

‘Tell me, Rosemary,’ I hear you, dear reader, say. ‘What have you been up to this week?’

‘Oh, we’ve all been rushed off our feet! You wouldn’t believe the demand for second-hand skirts, slightly chipped floral vases, felt hats and copies of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. I mean, we’ve barely been able to indulge in any slightly amusing chatter at all!’

‘Oh,’ you say. ‘Do you know what? I think I’ll see what they’re doing over at Vintage Model Railway & Train magazine. They’re always off on some madcap adventure!’

Take my word for it, life is much more interesting, madcap-adventure-wise, when somebody is standing behind the counter at a loose end, chatting.