佚名/Anonymous
Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house in Bethesda, Md.No card or note came with it.Calls to the florist were always in vain—it was a cash purchase.After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender’s identity and just delighted in the beauty and heady perfume of that one magical, perfect white flower nestled in soft pink tissue paper.
But I never stopped imagining who the anonymous giver might be.Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about someone wonderful and exciting but too shy or eccentrics to make known his or her identity.
My mother contributed to these imaginings.She’d ask me if there was someone for whom I had done a special kindness who might be showing appreciation.Perhaps the neighbor I’d help when she was unloading a car full of groceries.Or maybe it was the old man across the street whose mail I retrieved during the winter so he wouldn’t have to venture down his icy steps.As a teenager, though, I had more fun speculating that it might be a boy I had a crush on or one who had noticed me even though I didn’t know him.
When I was 17, a boy broke my heart.The night he called for the last time, I cried myself to sleep.When I awoke in the morning, there was a message scribbled on my mirror in red lipstick:“Heartily know, when half-gods go, the gods arrive.”I thought about that quotation from Emerson for a long time, and until my heart healed, I left it where my mother had written it.When I finally went to get the glass cleaner, my mother knew everything was all right again.
I don’t remember ever slamming my door in anger at her and shouting,“You just don’t understand!”because she did understand.
One month before my high-school graduation, my father died of a heart attack.My feelings ranged from grief to abandonment, fear and overwhelming anger that my dad was missing some of the most important events in my life.I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation, the senior-class play and the prom.But my mother, in the midst of her own grief, would not hear of my skipping any of those things.
The day before my father died, my mother and I had gone shopping for a prom dress.We’d found a spectacular one, with yards and yards of dotted Swiss in red white and blue, it made me feel like Scarlett O’Hara, but it was the wrong size.When my father died, I forgot about the dress.
My mother didn’t.The day before the prom, I found that dress—in the right size—draped majestically over the living-room sofa.It wasn’t just delivered, still in the box.It was presented to me—beautifully, artistically lovingly.I didn’t care if I had a new dress or not.But my mother did.
She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable, creative and imaginative, imbued with a sense that there was magic in the world and beauty even in the face of adversity.In truth, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect—with an aura of magic and perhaps a bit of mystery.
My mother died ten days after I married.I was 22 years old.That was the year the gardenias stopped coming.
從我12歲那年起，每年都有人在我生日那天把一枝潔白的梔子花送到家裏（馬裏蘭州貝塞斯達鎮上），沒有卡片，也沒有字條。我多次打電話到花店詢問，但總問不出個所以然來——這些花都是用現金支付的。後來，我就不再追查送花人，隻是盡情享受那枝神秘的、用粉紅絹紙包紮的雪白花朵的瑰麗和濃鬱芳香。
我還是不停地猜測這位匿名送花者。有時，我最喜歡做的事就是揣測這個人，或許他是一個無比優秀的人，但過於靦腆或者性格古怪，而不願透露身份。
母親也和我一起猜測，很多猜想還源於她的點撥。她會問我，是不是給誰做了件好事，所以人家用這種方式來答謝。或許是鄰居吧，我曾幫她卸下滿滿一車雜貨。也有可能是馬路對麵的那位老先生，寒冬時，我幫他取過郵件，這樣他就不必冒著滑倒的危險去取了。然而，正值花季的我，寧願相信這個人是我喜歡的男孩，或是暗戀我而我渾然不知的某個男生。
17歲那年，一個男生深深地傷害了我。他最後一次打電話給我的那晚，我失聲痛哭，後來，就不知不覺地睡著了。第二天早上醒來時，我看見鏡子上有一行潦草的字，是用紅色唇膏寫的——“切記：半仙離去，真神到來”。我一直沒擦去這些字。愛默生的這句話，我想了很久，最後終於想通了。於是，在我去拿玻璃清潔劑時，母親知道一切又恢複正常了。
記憶中，我從未衝母親發過脾氣，然後甩門而去，還吼道：“你根本不理解！”因為母親太了解我了。
在我高中畢業的前一個月，父親因心髒病離開了人世。我的情緒波動很大，時而悲痛哀傷、自暴自棄，時而恐懼膽怯、怨氣衝天。我知道，父親再也不能親眼目睹我人生中的大事了。我沉浸在這種痛苦中不能自拔，對臨近的畢業典禮、演出和舞會全然沒有了興趣。而母親，雖然也承受著巨大的悲痛，但執意讓我參與那些活動。
父親去世的前一天，我和母親上街買我在舞會時要穿的衣服。我們選中了一件極漂亮的衣服，上麵印有紅、白、藍三色小圓點。穿上它，我感覺自己像郝思嘉，隻是大小不合適。父親病故後，我就把那件衣服忘了。
但母親沒忘。畢業舞會的前一天，我發現那件衣服——大小適宜——掛在客廳的沙發上，看起來是那麽華麗端莊。它並不是裝在盒內，而是像店裏送來的那樣，亮麗典雅地呈現在我眼前。有沒有新衣服，我無所謂，但母親很在乎。
母親希望我能感受到他人的情愛，能招人喜歡、有創造力，想象豐富，也希望我相信世間總有奇跡，相信即便是身處逆境，也會有美好。事實上，母親希望我視自己為潔白的梔子花——可愛、健壯、完美——並帶著神奇的芳香和些許的神秘。
我結婚10天後，母親就撒手人寰了。當時我22歲，也就是在那一年，再沒人送來潔白的梔子花了。
1.magical
作形容詞：魔術的；有魔力的。
magic魔法。
magically如魔法般地。
例：The effect of the treatment upon the patient was magical.這種治療對於病人的效果是意想不到的。
2.in vain白費地,徒勞無益地；無效果的,無用的。短語：lost in vain表示“徒勞地迷失了”。
to wait in vain表示“等不到”。
例：We tried in vain to make him change his mind.
我們試圖使他改變主意,結果是白費心機。
1.After a while I stopped_________discover the sender’s identity and just delighted in the beauty and heady_________of that one magical, perfect white flower nestled in soft_________tissue paper.
2.One month before my_________graduation, my father died of a heart attack.My feelings ranged from grief to abandonment,_________and overwhelming anger that was missing some of the most important events in my life.
親情是潤物的細雨，醉人的春風；親情是厚重的叮嚀，深情的凝望；親情是一縷陽光，讓心靈即便在寒冷的冬天也能感覺到溫暖；親情是一泓清泉，讓情感即便蒙上歲月的塵灰也依然清澈澄淨。