Verity had collected some lovely things. Beautiful cutlery, for example, and lovely table clothes, and a vase that looked exquisite in the hall on the Queen Anne corner table. It’s not that she was rich; it’s just that, over the years, one gets a little here and a little there. Suddenly, one realizes that one has collected some lovely things!
But time had moved on. Verity thought she should put her house on the market. It was getting too big for her now. She had an open day. Prospective buyers could come and view the house. And they came, in good numbers.
“Would you mind ever so much,” asked one lovely couple, “if we opened the kitchen cupboards? Cupboard space is such an important thing when buying a house.”
So the cupboards and drawers were opened and shut, and bathroom and kitchen water run (no doubt to check the pressure), and the air conditioning was turned on and off, and even the stove was gazed into.
That evening, without an immediate sale, Verity noticed that a knife and fork were missing from the drawer. She used to have a set of eight and now it was seven. It was annoying. It was more than annoying; she used that set of eight on Sundays when her children and grandchildren came for brunch on the way home from church.
And then the lovely couple phoned and asked if they could have another look! And they did, the following Thursday. Unfortunately, they decided against buying.
The following Sunday, it was time for brunch. That’s strange, thought Verity setting the table for eight, I must have counted wrong.