In My Desperate Time

I pick up the pieces and put them all in a bag, and take it out of the door.

Frances Louis will be back in the evening, so I must solve it during the day.

I call Steven Song and tell him I'd be late. I get the leave permit so easily. It’s nice to have a boss buddy.

Then I call Mindy Sue. She tells me a shop that restores antiques, and I go there excitedly.

The boss is a woman of about thirty, not glamorous, but graceful, who looks very comfortable.

When I get in, she is cleaning an inkstone.

She sees me come in and gives me a soft smile.

“Hello.” I go up to her and take the bag out. “Ms, please have a look at this vase and would you repair it?”

The boss puts down the inkstone and takes over the bag.

She frowns when she sees the pieces.

“Broke into pieces.”

and I ask her hurriedly, “Can it be

It must be repaired. Or I can’t pay it off even if I

will try my best but I can’t promise.” The

Can it be repaired

this vase can't be fixed today, I

a hurry, I'm not going to do anything else today and will focus on this.

me and dumps out

blue-and-white porcelain vase. It is not very big. But it must be difficult to be repaired because it has been broken into forty or fifty

you. I will come again around six in

out of the antique

what you

says to

me yesterday. It was she who said gossips that made it so awkward. Much of Nicole Snow's hostility toward me comes from misunderstanding

have explained but she doesn’t believe

no business in my private things.” I say to her confidently and go

last night during my menstrual cramps. I must draw it as soon as possible in

feel like she wants to see what I'm doing. A designer’s work is a private thing. I turn to her and say, “What are you doing behind