Sometimes things would get stuck into his head, and they would just turn, and turn, and turn inside it, until they made him dizzy and confused.
This time it was mercerized cotton. He had had no idea this fabric existed. Cotton was cotton.
One day though, in a charity shop he found a: tag on, great looking, dark blue t-shirt, that fit him like a glove. The t-shirt felt sturdy without being thick, and it had this eye-pleasing sheen to it.
‘Polyester!’ he told himself, being disappointed before reading the label.
George looked up the label and read: 100% cotton.
No! Cannot be! What trickery is this?! The fabric felt like anything but cotton. He read the second label, under the first one, and there he saw the mention mercerized cotton.
‘What in God’s name is that?!’ he had never heard of it.
He bought the t-shirt, it was too good (and new, well with tags on), to risk leaving it behind. He knew himself, he would think about it for weeks if he did not buy it.
The new notion of mercerized cotton was floating in his head, slowly expanding to fully fill it.
On the bus home he looked it up online. It was indeed a thing! Because it was more expensive to obtain it was usually reserved for high end clothing. Ohhhhh! He pulled closer the bag containing his new t-shirt. George felt his like for it growing steadily.
Looks more refined; Increased strength; Holds color better; More dimensionally stable; Silk-like sheen; Cleaner, crisper finish; High-quality
The words floated in front of his eyes and his appreciation grew.
By the time he got home George was in awe of the beauty and finish of the t-shirt. He could not believe that he had never known mercerized cotton even existed.
He washed the t-shirt (could not wear it unwashed, his skin would have broken out in hives) and, as expected, it washed wonderfully well.
When it dried, George touched it trying to come to terms with the look and feel of the fabric. He could not believe it was indeed cotton. Magic!
He could remember only one time when something caused a similar state of disbelief. When he had washed a lyocell shirt and it had become, from supple and soft, all rough and difficult to handle.
George had been sure it was ruined, that he did something wrong, but then, when it dried, it turned back, amazingly, to soft and wonderful, from fibrous and rough. Lyocell was also a strange and wonderful fabric.
George loved his t-shirt so much that a pang of pain shot through his heart. He only had this t-shirt, this one t-shirt made from mercerized cotton, if he wore it and something happened to it (stains, holes, tears) he would be so upset. George decided he loved it too much to wear, so he packed it nicely, and safely, and put it in the wardrobe.
He needed to find another one. If he had two, then he could wear the wonderful t-shirt without fear of anything happening to it.
George looked up online mercerized cotton t-shirts, or other garments for that matter, and was surprised to find that there weren’t that many. The ones that were available, were very expensive and way out of reach for George.
The longer the search became, the luckier he started to feel that he had found that t-shirt in the first place. Not to mention that it was in his size, with tags and at a cheap polyester price. He knew there are some expensive polyesters too.
A few months had passed since George had bought his t-shirt. Now, he was well accustomed to the term, and whenever he was digging for treasures in charity shops, he also checked the t-shirts that seemed plastic, you never know when a mercerized cotton one might pop-up.
George’s obsession with the new t-shirt turned into appreciation, and he finally decided to wear it to a company event where he was hoping to make a good impression, to maybe be considered for a promotion…
Putting on the t-shirt felt like a religious experience, like Superman putting on his suit. Mercerized cotton felt indeed special and it made George feel special, happy, well dressed and confident.
Increased strength; looks more refined; More dimensionally stable; Cleaner, crisper finish
At the party, unexpectedly enough, people did comment on his t-shirt and he explained all about mercerized cotton, about the chemical process in which cotton fibers are treated with sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) under tension, and how it was developed in 1844 by John Mercer.
They were impressed.
And they were won over when George told them his mercerized cotton joke:
‘Mercerized cotton is cotton that went to finishing school.’
‘Oh George! You are too much! We have a new project starting next month, let’s chat about it!’
George nodded, his heart beating hard against his mercerized cotton shell.
It was all about the fabric indeed.
His own fabric.