The Keeper of Lost Things

Anthony’s lawyer arrives to settle Anthony’s estate. He shares with Laura a story of Anthony’s childhood and why the song “The Very Thought of You” was so special for him. When Anthony was a little boy, the night before his father shipped out during World War 2, he and his parents danced together to the record. His father departed the next morning and never came home, killed during an escape attempt from a German POW camp. In addition, the letter Anthony leaves for Laura explains the importance of Therese’s lost Communion medallion and in turn the importance of his lifelong obsession with returning lost things to their owners. He then explains that now returning the objects is Laura’s mission, news that both pleases and overwhelms Laura: “Anthony had chosen her as his successor and she was proud and grateful, but also terrified of failing him” (94). As she is unpacking her few boxes of things to move into Padua, she meets Felicity, Freddy’s abrasive but fetching girlfriend, who initially mistakes Laura for the maid. The neighbors wonder about Laura, as she overhears while she lunches alone at a pub.

The narrative turns back to Eunice. It is 1984. Eunice understands now, approaching 40, after working for Bomber for 10 years, that Bomber, the man she loves, will never be hers: “Every man came second best to Bomber, and no man deserved to be forever runner-up” (91). She suspects that perhaps Bomber might be gay but never directly asks. Three years later, Bomber wrestles with the devastating implications of his father’s slow descent into Alzheimer’s. Bomber confides in Eunice that his father has begun to wander the neighborhood and leave on appliances unattended. The risks are mounting, and the family considers putting him in a facility.

Back in Padua, weeks after Anthony’s death, Laura, Freddy, and Sunshine plan a simple memorial service in Padua’s sumptuous rose garden. Sunshine is fascinated by Anthony’s study with its shelves teeming with lost things. One in particular attracts her: a lady’s navy-blue leather glove. When she picks it up, she screams in pain. The author then provides the story of the glove: It was lost by a young, desolate mother who dropped the glove before she leaped to her death off a bridge. Sunshine’s intense reaction bothers Laura—perhaps the study with its contents is too much for the impressionable girl. Sunshine reassures her she can handle it: “If you never get sadness, how do you know what happy is like? (109). The memorial service goes off without a hitch. Anthony’s ashes are scattered in the rose garden. Laura believes the two lovers are at last together.

Freddy agrees to help Laura build a website, called The Keeper of Lost Things, to help locate at least some of the owners of the tagged items.

Laura, determined to start her life anew, goes on what turns out to be a disastrous date with a friend of her ex-husband’s. The two have little to talk about over dinner, and the good night kiss is obligatory and awkward. Angry and frustrated, Laura drinks herself to sleep. The next morning, she is hung over and depressed when Sarah, a longtime friend of hers, unexpectedly shows up. Apparently, a very drunk Laura left a half dozen messages on Sarah’s phone. Laura opens up to her friend about her fears of being alone and of ending up “living in a house full of mice and cobwebs and other people’s lost property” (139). Sarah reassures Laura that self-pity is an emotional dead end. Sarah advises her to stop punishing herself over her ruinous marriage and her abandoned dreams, and to follow her heart and not be afraid to be Sunshine’s friend—to let someone else into her life. Laura takes the advice to heart. She and Sunshine begin the immense work of building the website’s database, one item at a time.

It is now Christmastime. Unexpectedly, Laura’s ex-husband, Vince, shows up at the door. Laura suspects he has gotten wind of her inheritance. The conversation quickly escalates into confrontational rhetoric until a desperate Laura heaves a carton of milk at Vince. Freddy appears, and the two men exchange heated words before Freddy decks Vince with one quick punch to the face. That night Laura is awakened by music coming from the downstairs gramophone: “The Very Thought of You.” When the song ends, Laura is not sure if it was real or a dream. Unable to sleep, she goes downstairs. She enters the study to work on the database. She selects a child’s umbrella from the shelves. We read the story of Alice, a rich girl living in New York City, who has an encounter in Central Park with Marvin, a homeless schizophrenic who spends his days gathering broken umbrellas from trash cans, fixing them as best he can, and then handing them out to others. When Marvin hands Alice an umbrella, her mother, shocked at the boldness of the gesture, pulls the girl away, calling Marvin a dangerous moron. The girl blows him a kiss, and Marvin leaves the umbrella against the park’s statue of Alice in Wonderland.