My eighth Button Flash is for all the contrarians out there on Black Friday.  Here’s  250 words written in one hour, all about a reader’s button.  Thanks, Marilyn B! 

Black Friday

In most ways, Mary was an ordinary person.  She worked an ordinary job.  She drove an ordinary car.  She lived in an ordinary townhouse.

There was only one way Mary was not ordinary.

She didn’t like new things.   

Mary had bought her nice work blazer a year ago in a thrift shop.  It was brown with delicate oval buttons etched in a flower design.  She liked to wear it with a fuschia scarf and ankle pants.  She’d bought those in a thrift shop, too.  She’d buy everything in a thrift shop if she could, but it had become difficult  between the economy going south and thrift shop clothes becoming faddish.

She’d put off buying new things as long as possible and then try to get as much as she could in one trip.  She’d make her selections, put them in the cart and try to check out.  Often, she’d back out before she got to the cashier.  She’d get buyer’s remorse before she’d bought anything.

She was pretty sure she was the only person in the world that happened to.

Lately it had gotten worse.

Much worse.

She decided to try therapy.  Aversion therapy.

The day after Thanksgiving, her alarm went off early.  She dressed quickly and headed out.

A massive crush of people pushed her forward when she hesitated at the store door.  Once inside she found an empty corner and tried not to panic.

New plastic-like smells.  New bright colors.   New scratchy textures.

Too much.  Too new.  She shivered.

Do you have a button with a story waiting to be told?  Email an image of it to ej@elizabethjennings.com and I’ll do the rest.  Click here for details and for a great Christmas gift idea, don’t forget to check out my book, The Button Collector.