The Moon Festival Cousin Switch novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Fabric Shop
The fabric shop opened at nine, and Anqi was there at ten to.
It stood at the end of a lane behind the old canal, between a tea seller and a locksmith.
The window held bolts of silk in plum, jade and rust, and a handwritten card that said Cut To Order.
Inside, the air smelled of starch and camphor.
Shuhua stood behind a long wooden counter with a pair of shears in her hand.
She did not say good morning.
She said, "Sit," and pointed at a stool.
Anqi sat.
The older woman cut a length of grey wool from a bolt, folded it twice, and laid it on the counter without looking up.
"My husband was a driver for a bus company," she said. "Did Mengyao tell you?"
"She said he died six years ago."
"He had a heart that stopped on a Tuesday. He was forty-nine." The shears went snip. "When I married him, my family said no."
Anqi waited.
"I was twenty-three. I had a good job in a bank and a mother who wanted a manager's son for me. I brought home a bus driver whose father had been a brother to a man who sold buttons."
"Haoran's father's brother."
"The button family. Poor and cheerful. My mother said I would be cold within a year." Shuhua's mouth twitched. "She was right about the money. She was wrong about everything else."
She put the shears down.
"For thirty years he made me laugh at the worst moments. At funerals. In the middle of arguments. I would be furious and he would pull a face, and I could not stay furious. And then he stopped."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Listen." She leaned both palms on the counter. "After he died I found out what I am. I am a woman who is afraid of an empty flat. I wanted my daughter safe before I was left alone with it."
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