EXAMPLE PAGE - EBOOKS - THE PROMISE OF THE TEA GODS - Flipbook - Page 50
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H. K. O'HARA
Something deliciously warm enveloped him.
“Those memories aren’t painful anymore,” she said. “If things
hadn’t been exactly the way they were, I might have never met Binnie.
And if I hadn’t met Binnie, I might have never met one of my favorite
singers, Kim Soo-kang . . . So, I have a lot to be thankful for. Yesterday’s magic carpet ride brought me to today’s gift, and that gift is you—
I have met a person I’ve always admired, not because you are a celebrated singer, but because you are a remarkable human being.”
Her eyes set his soul on fire. For the life of him, he could not think
of anything but the gentleness sitting beside him. The wind played with
her hair. He wanted to touch it. Dive into it. Stay there forever.
Slowly sliding them across the rock, she drew up her bare feet and
put her arms around her knees. The delicate strand of gold around her
ankle sparkled in the sun as the unleashed corner of her soft-yellow
sweater floated out and found a place to rest against Soo-kang’s knee.
He could barely breathe. He wanted to love that her sweater was
touching him, but he had no right to even think such a thought, so he
tried his best to pull himself together and find a thought that was more
appropriate. Less dangerous. More safe. But the distance between dangerous and safe was quickly disappearing and it was hard to tell where
one ended and the other began. Somehow, they had merged, and he
wasn’t sure how to separate them. Right next to his pitiful apologies was
his joyful heart—joyful, because it was filled with her.
How could anyone have a life like that, he wondered, and be thankful
for it? She has no idea where she began, and yet she meets a stranger
who feels like home? And then I come along and delete her, and she
calls me a remarkable human being? I apologize, she holds it in her hand
for less than a second, then gives it back to me—saying there’s nothing
to forgive . . . And what do I do? I keep apologizing—I keep trying to
convince her that my apology is something valuable she should hang
onto so I can feel better about myself. And she sees that as a gift? And
how in God’s name does anyone survive without feeling like they’re
part of a family? Family is everything. It’s how you know who you are.
And yet, even without one, she seems to know exactly who she is.
