第二章 有一种快乐叫珍惜（9）（2/2）
《世界上最温情的故事》作者：吴文智 2017-04-14 12:57
et in Pasadena. I walked up and down the outdoor aisles, and after a couple of hours I was thinking about leaving. I rounded the last corner and took a few steps down the row when I noticed some china strewn on the macadam. I saw that it was hand-painted china... with forget-me-nots! I raced over to look at it more closely and gingerly picked up a cup and saucer... forget-me-nots! Exactly like Grandmother’s china, with the same delicate strokes and the same thin gold bands around the rims. I looked at the rest of the items—there were the cups! The saucers! The bowls! It was Grandmother’s china!
The dealer had noticed my excitement, and when she came over I told her the story of the missing box. She said the china had come from an estate sale in Pasadena—the next town over from Arcadia, where we had lived when I was a child. When she was going through the contents of the estate, she had found an old unopened carton stored in the garden shed, and the china was in it. She queshoned the heirs about the china and they said that they knew nothing about it, that the box had been in the shed “forever.”
I left the Rose Bowl Flea Market that day laden with my amazing treasure. Even now, six years later, I am filled with wonder that “all the pieces in the universe” tumbled together to let me find the missing china. What would have happened if I had slept in? What gave me the itch to go to the Rose Bowl on that particular day? What if I hadn’t turned that last corner, choosing instead to leave and rest my aching feet?
The dealer had noticed my excitement, and when she came over I told her the story of the missing box. She said the china had come from an estate sale in Pasadena—the next town over from Arcadia, where we had lived when I was a child. When she was going through the contents of the estate, she had found an old unopened carton stored in the garden shed, and the china was in it. She queshoned the heirs about the china and they said that they knew nothing about it, that the box had been in the shed “forever.”
I left the Rose Bowl Flea Market that day laden with my amazing treasure. Even now, six years later, I am filled with wonder that “all the pieces in the universe” tumbled together to let me find the missing china. What would have happened if I had slept in? What gave me the itch to go to the Rose Bowl on that particular day? What if I hadn’t turned that last corner, choosing instead to leave and rest my aching feet?