Chapter 7

Pam ran out the back of Ramasamy Prata shop and straight towards the mango cafe.

It was filled with people eating delicious desserts, chatting and flipping through magazines.

“May I help you?” the young lady at the counter said.

“Actually, I think I can help you! I believe this apron is yours.” Pam showed the lady the apron she had taken from the box.

The lady behind the counter saw the tiny mangoes on it and was overjoyed.

“Our apron! Our apron!”

Three waitresses appeared from the kitchen and everyone squealed with delight.

“I’m Molly,” the lady introduced herself to Pam. “This is my cafe. Where did you find my apron?”

Pam explained everything:

“Someone has been taking the aprons from the clothesline at the back of Ramasamy Prata. I thought it was a thief but when Mr Ramasamy’s dirty aprons were taken tonight, a box of clean aprons was left in their place.”

“And,” Pam continued, “these aprons have tiny mangoes on them so I realised they must belong to you. Your shop sells mango desserts, after all. It looks like someone has been taking Mr Ramasamy’s aprons away to clean them and then returning the wrong aprons once they were washed.”

“Whoever it was must have got their addresses mixed up,” Pam concluded. “They were taking aprons from Ramasamy Prata when they should have been taking aprons from your cafe instead.” “You are a very smart girl!” Molly smiled.

She told everyone that she had called the dry cleaners to come and pick up her shop’s aprons four days ago.

“But they didn’t come,” Molly explained. “I kept calling them every day to tell them that the aprons were hanging on the clothesline outside our shop, ready for collection. But the dry cleaners insisted that they had already picked them up!”

“So this morning,” Molly continued, “I took our dirty aprons and dropped them off at the dry cleaners myself. I asked them to have the aprons washed and delivered back to the shop by tonight.”

“Aha!” Pam chimed in, “So the cleaners came by tonight and dropped off your clean aprons, but they dropped them off at Ramasamy Prata by mistake. They must have the wrong address.”

“I guess so,” Molly laughed. “And here we were thinking they were not telling us the truth. They insisted they had picked up our aprons three days in a row but they must have been picking up the wrong ones!”

“Here are the rest of your aprons!” Ronnie said as he entered the shop carrying the big brown box.

Molly smiled as she held the clean aprons up in the air.

“I designed these aprons myself!” she exclaimed.

“I’m crazy about mangoes so I opened this mango cafe. I got these aprons printed for my staff, and I wanted to take extra special care of them by getting them dry-cleaned. Who would have thought that this would lead to such a misunderstanding?”