Lost Opportunities

I am struggling to finish my mystery, Murder Most Mystifying, and fighting against all the distractions that pop up to delay me.  This happens in nearly all my books.  I’ve finally realized it’s my inner self fighting against ending my relationship with each of the stories I write.  Anyway, today’s temptation is in the form of a post card sent by friends from Italy.  I didn’t even know they were planning a trip to Italy and now I hear they’re traveling to lots of the hill towns in Tuscany and in particular, Volterra.  If only I had known they were going there.  Volterra was the first hill town we visited when we went many years ago and we had no idea what to expect.  It was a hot, dusty, quiet little town, more so because we arrived in the middle of the siesta time.  We found a restaurant for lunch and then wandered around as the town came back to life.  At one edge of town past the restaurant where we ate were the ruins of a Roman coliseum.  It was stunningly beautiful and seemingly ignored by the residents who were probably used to it being there.

   Volterra is a town whose residents carve and sell things made from the marble mined near there.  We realized this after visiting shop after shop filled with incredible decorative items.  Way up on top of the hill was one particular shop which was selling all the usual things we saw in every shop but in addition they offered marble fruit which was so life-like you were tempted to take a bite.  I decided to buy some to put in a bowl on the table at home and I spent a great deal of time selecting pears, peaches, apples, plums, figs and even cherries.  We arranged to have it shipped as it was too heavy for the small pieces of luggage we were travelling with.  My husband urged me to buy more pieces but I was a cautious shopper.  I felt we would see this same fruit elsewhere on our travels and perhaps find it at even a cheaper price.  We no more than left the town and I began to regret I didn’t buy more.  And in fact,  while we traveled in Italy for another three weeks we never caught sight of any fruit even similar to that beautiful fruit we bought in Volterra.

   When the shipment came after we returned home the fruit was as unique and beautiful as I remembered and I still loved it.  But it only filled half of the crystal bowl I planned to use.  I needed twice as much.  So as a temporary fix, I filled the bowl, underneath the fruit, with clear glass marbles to better display the fruit.  And I began watching for a chance to buy similar fruit.  Over the years I have had many compliments on the fruit and I have never found it again.  If I had only known my friends were going to Volterra, because it seems no one ever does, I could have had them ship me more fruit.  

   I can’t wait until they get back to see if they actually found that same shop, if they saw the fruit, or did they buy some?  And I wait for another opportunity to fill my fruit bowl.

  And after I retrieve a picture of Volterra  from my album on Italy to include with this post, I guess I’ll get back to my writing.  Maybe I will finish this book today, unless something else distracts me.