13
My mother gave a disapproving sniff when I admitted that my neighbour hadn’t given me any stamps.
‘I’m disappointed in you, Emily, really I am,’ she said. ‘You’re always telling me how I ought to be more careful with my carbon footprint, and your neighbour just gave you a perfect opportunity to do some recycling, and you did nothing about it. And now all those stamps have been thrown away. What a waste.’
Uncomfortable with her disapproval, I lied stupidly. ‘Oh no, they haven’t been thrown away.’
‘Why don’t you ask her to give them to you, then?’ my mother asked sharply.
Unable to extricate myself from my story, I blundered on. ‘Because she hasn’t got them any more. She’s given them away. She told me she gives them to a charity. So they didn’t go to waste. They just didn’t come to m
