I ONLY DECIDED TO GO AT THE LAST MINUTE. It had been a busy week and I didn’t much feel like capping it off with small talk, but Ava texted me at lunchtime to ask if I would please go with her, she really needed to get out of the house for an hour. We can be quick, she said. I’ll pick you up at two and we don’t have to stay long. Okay, I said. I’ll go. See you at two.
This is such a good idea, Ava said when I dipped into the passenger seat. Isn’t this such a great idea? I set the reusable grocery bag I’d just filled with clothes from the back of my closet on my lap.
It really is, I said. It’s such a good idea.
After Ava texted, I’d peered inside my closet for a full seven minutes before picking anything out. I did need to go through my clothes, but I couldn’t grab just anything. This wasn’t a Goodwill dump, I could only bring things people – women I knew – might actually want to wear. No one went to a clothing swap looking for torn sweatshirts and pilled leggings. I snatched a black pencil skirt off a hanger (laughable to still own) then retrieved a pair of shoes I’d acc
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Brittany Clair has a PhD in history and is the author of Carrying On: Another School of Thought on Pregnancy and Health and Rest Uneasy: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Twentieth-Century America. She’s written about parenting and health for numerous online venues and formerly taught undergraduate classes in medical history and women’s history. She lives in Maine with her family.