Along Came Wanda

A Memory Jogged by a Teapot from an Old Lover Quickly Turns into an Adventure for Mary and Her New Friend Wanda as They Hit the Road in Wandas RV.

My mother was telling me a story about my life, but it was all wrong. The little girl I had been was too old and she was crying, not laughing. The details of the story were all off, but I knew the teapot she was describing. That teapot changed hands at least three times throughout my life and it had become a symbol of great joy and great sadness combined when I lost it.

It had been with me as a ten-year-old girl, when my father died suddenly of a heart attack. I remember that after the funeral, we had to sort through everything in his office at home to decide what to keep and what to discard. I remember that he had quite a few treasures from his travels around the world, and I wanted to take some things that would remind me of him when he wasn’t there any more.

The first thing I chose was a small teapot in the shape of a woman’s torso with four breasts on it that held tea for four people. It sat on my nightstand for several years

It started with a teapot.

Mary had come across the teapot during a visit to her hometown, and she had asked her old lover, Wanda, if it was for sale. Wanda had explained that it wasn’t for sale—it belonged to another woman whom Wanda had been living with for many years.