Ernest

"What do we know about the shoes?"
A hand went up. The teacher did a nod to the student, acknowledging him and demanding a response from him at the same time.
"They were for sale."
"Yes. And?"
"They'd not been worn."
"Why had they not been worn?"
Silence.
"Could it have been because the baby had died?"
A hand went up. The nod again.
"Maybe he bought the wrong size."
"No."
"No?"
"That's the wrong answer."
The students were baffled by this response. Since when did literature have a wrong answer? And in any case, most of them would have agreed, the story was shit anyway.