A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

Author:Christina Baker Kline
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

I’M APPREHENSIVE ABOUT seeing Walton for the first time after the long winter apart, but he gives me a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I have a present for you,” he says, drawing a large shell from the inside pocket of his seersucker jacket and placing it on the table in front of us. “I thought you might add it to your collection.”

The shell is shiny and garishly colored—orange red, with bulky knobs on top that get smaller toward the edges.

I pick it up. It’s as smooth and heavy as a glass paperweight. “Oh. Where did you find this?”

“I bought it. In a specialty shop in Cambridge.” He smiles. “From Hawaii, I believe. It’s called a cameo shell. At least that’s what the card on the shelf said. It’ll look nice in the Shell Room, don’t you think?”

I nod. “Sure.”

He touches my arm. “You don’t like it.”

“No, it’s—interesting.” But I’m disappointed that he doesn’t know me well enough to understand that this gaudy bauble from a specialty shop doesn’t belong in the Shell Room, filled with discoveries from expeditions. I wish he’d lied and told me he found it on a beach.

I set the cameo shell on the mantelpiece in the Shell Room, but it looks out of place, like an artificial flower in a garden. After a few weeks, I put it in a drawer.

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