If the hat fits

If she hadn’t seen it, Dina would never have believed it – things had certainly taken a turn for the unexpected!

- Linda Lewis

She was just heading home when something unusual caught Dina’s eye in the shop’s window display – a cloche-style hat in a soft shade of plum with an unusual twisted bow detail. It reminded her of one she’d seen on Downton Abbey.

She couldn’t resist taking a closer look. After all, she could do with cheering up after such a dismal job interview. Inside, she walked towards the display and picked up the hat, only for the vivid image of an older lady with a million-megawatt smile to pop into her head. Startled, she almost dropped the hat. What was happening here?

‘You saw her, didn’t you?’ The man behind the counter was beaming. Dina nodded. ‘A woman wearing a hat exactly like this one.’

The man smiled. ‘She’s Agatha Marshall, my great-grandmother,’ he explained, with pride in his voice. ‘She was an amazing woman – spent 12 years in Africa, where she discovered, among other things, a new species of frog. She put it all down to the hat – she said it found things. In fact, she was wearing it when she found a man who’d been lost in the forest for days. They were married 12 weeks later.’

As she listened, Dina reached for the hat. Carefully, almost reverently, she tried it on. It was a perfect fit. She checked the price tag – £110. ‘Good heavens! I can’t afford that. I’m sorry.’

The man beckoned her to come closer. ‘Because you saw my great-grandmother, you can have the hat for £10 – but there’s a condition: when you find what you’re looking for, you must return it.’

Dina was bemused. All she wanted was a job, and a hat couldn’t possibly help her with that, could it!