The Box Cat

Chester was born in a box with four other kittens. He was in a smaller box marked "free kitten" when Sasha met him and took him home. And from that moment on, he loved boxes. Every day after he finished grooming（刷洗）, licking his paws and fur with his tongue, he would look around for a box to sleep in.

He slept in hat boxes, gift boxes and takeout food boxes. He slept in Sasha's sock drawer, if she left it open. One year Sasha got a beautiful dollhouse for her birthday, a dark green three-story house with lots of furniture. Sasha loved it. So did Chester. He liked to push the furniture out of all the rooms and sit in the bedroom on the second floor. Sasha had to redecorate the dollhouse every day, but she didn't mind as long as Chester was happy.

One day Sasha came home from school, and she couldn't find Chester. He wasn't in the dollhouse, or her sock drawer, even though she'd forgotten to close it.

"Mom, Dad!" Sasha wailed（大叫）. "Chester is gone!"

Sasha's mom looked in the attic. There were boxes and dust bunnies, and even a mouse that had escaped Chester's notice, but no Chester. Sasha's dad looked in the kitchen cabinets, but no Chester.

Suddenly ---

"I found him!" Sasha cried.

Chester was inside her mom's new glass vase, and he didn't look happy at all. Even his whiskers（须）looked sad. Sasha tipped the vase over gently and tried to pull him out, but Chester just yowled（惨叫）.

"We'll have to break the vase to get him out!" Sasha cried.

Now her mom didn't look happy. It was a beautiful vase, clear glass with blue and green swirls.

"No," said her dad. "If we break it, the glass shards（碎片）might hurt Chester. Maybe we can put butter on the inside of the vase and slide him out, like the time you got that ring stuck on your finger."

Eric was working in a selling business. He had been on the road visiting people for more than a month without going home. He couldn’t wait to get back to see his wife and children. It was coming up on Mother’s Day, and he usually tried to make it “back home”, but this year he was just too busy and too tired. The day when he was driving in a small town, he saw a flower shop. He said to himself, “I know what I will do. I’ll send my mother some roses.”

He stopped and went into the flower shop and saw a young man talking to the girl in it. “How many roses can I get for fifty dollars?” the boy asked. The girl was trying to explain that roses were expensive. Maybe the young man would be happy with something else.

“No. I have to have roses,” he said. “My mom was badly sick last year and I didn’t spend much time with her. I want to get something special. It has to be red roses, because that is her favorite,” He was stubborn.

The girl in the shop looked up at Eric and was just shaking her head. Something inside of Eric was touched by the boy’s voice. He wanted to get those roses so badly. Eric had been blessed (幸运的) in his business, and he looked at the girl and silently said that he would pay for the boy’s roses.

The girl looked at the young man and said, “OK, I will give you a dozen red roses for your dollars.” The young man almost jumped into the air. He took the flowers and ran out of the store. It was worth more than fifty dollars just to see that kind of excitement.

Eric ordered his own flowers and asked the girl to have it delivered to his mother. After that, with a relief he drove down the road. Not long after his driving, he saw the boy walking to a graveyard (墓地).

Eric stopped his car and followed the young man.

Eric went into the car in tears.

Twenty-three years ago, in a small town in France, the then 12-year-old girl Zugay and her 17-year-old elder sister Vanja lost their parents. They had nobody to depend on except their brother, who was a college student in Minnesota, America. The brother borrowed some money and managed to send his sisters two flight tickets, which would allow them to fly to America to stay with him. The two poor girls boarded the plane to America.

On the plane, next to the girls sat two ladies, who appeared to be in their late 30s. One wore a black pigtail. The other had mid-length fair hair. Both women carried tennis rackets (球拍). They talked about playing tennis in Paris.

When it was time for lunch, the stewardess (空姐) handed out food to the passengers. But the two girls got none, because their flight tickets didn’t include lunch. Despite the fact that they were hungry, they couldn’t afford any food. The two ladies noticed it and started conversation with them. Zugay couldn’t speak English at the time, but Vanja was able to carry on more of a conversation. The two ladies learnt about the girls’ situation and offered to buy lunch for them. Zugay and Vanja were moved to tears. Although Zugay couldn’t speak English, she had a good time with the ladies. She even helped the women with knitting (编织).

Time passed quickly. The flight landed at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Before leaving, one of the ladies handed them an envelope and made them promise not to open it until they got off the plane.

The girls were later shocked to discover a $100 bill inside. A note on the outside of the envelope read: A friend from the plane—TRACY. In the upper left-hand corner, “Holiday Hotel Garden Court” was printed in blue.