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.

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