Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
– A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
I went back to the Mercado do Bolhão Market in Porto, Portugal again. I’m happy to say the vendor I wrote about in a previous post was back. Her name is Maria and she’ll be at the market until it closes for a two year renovation project in September.
I met two more of the vendors as I wandered around. I first spoke with the woman on the right. When the other woman joined us I asked if they were friends. Before the woman on the left could answer the woman on the right shook her head and said no.
The look of shock on the other woman’s face was priceless. She yelled at her friend in a joking way. Her friend defended herself, she thought I asked if they were family.
We shared the universal language of laughter and in that moment I saw the young girl in each of them. They embraced each other and a seventy year friendship was reaffirmed.
