Joan aspired to Vi’s sense of propriety. It was one of the reasons she’d lasted so long in this job. She respected Vi’s capacity for imagination, her understanding that everything had a purpose for something or somebody; even those items which couldn’t be sold had value and went on to be recycled somewhere else. Nothing was useless. Vi’s attitude rubbed off and Joan herself felt a greater sense of personal worth since she’d been working with Vi. Nothing stayed on the shelves for long, as if the place were given a spring cleaning on a regular basis. At the end of her working stint, Joan always felt repaired and she attributed this sense of renewal to Vi, showing her appreciation by being reliable and conscientious; like today, after a bad night with not much sleep. Yet here she was. On time, neat and tidy and managing on her own. She ached a bit but she’d be alright, so long as she kept on the move and didn’t sit down.

It was Wednesday. Vi would be in at lunchtime and they’d have all afternoon to catch up with the backlog of boxes and bags. They always made sure they were on together three times a week. Right from the beginning it was obvious they made a good team. Between them they’d increased sales significantly in the past three months since Joan had started there.

"It’s a winning combination." Vi said. "My management and your shop display."
They were having a cup of tea. Joan was standing at the backroom door so she could keep an eye on the shop, while Vi was on a stool, pricing the new goods all laid out on the sorting table.
"Here! See what you can do with this." and she handed Joan an orange ashtray. Retro, a plastic monster of a thing which she stood proud in the window, sharing the prime position with its own reflection in a chrome mirror.
"That’ll not be there long."

Like a lot of charity shops, they sold new merchandise alongside the donated goods and Joan had taken a while to get used to the conflict of styles but now she enjoyed the challenge of diversity when arranging things to their best advantage. There was a sudden influx of customers so Joan went up behind the counter to serve.
Vi came out from the back to help her with the queue.
"Did you know the phone was off the hook Joan?"
"No – it must have got knocked."
"Mmm... better put that down on our checklist."
It started ringing then but they were both busy with the sales, so eventually it stopped.