Page 70 - SpontaneousSuccessMatos

trunk of a car! No way. Our room was paid up until the
end of the month but with only two hundred pounds and
no tickets back home, we were stuck.
I felt like I'd hit rock bottom. But as I sat on a bench
outside our rooming house the next morning, something
shifted. To my left was a hardware store, its window
display a jumble of tools and hardware. To my right was
a newsagent, its shelves stacked with newspapers and
magazines. But it was the banner in the corner of the
hardware store window that caught my eye: "Blossoms
Bring a Sparkle to the Summertime Air."
And in that moment, something clicked. I had an
epiphany, a spark of inspiration that would change
everything. It was as if the universe had sent me a
message, a reminder that even in the darkest of times,
there's always hope. And with that hope, a new journey
began.
Just before leaving Portugal, I was fascinated by
some huge paper flowers I saw in a furniture store
window. My curiosity got the better of me, and I went in
to check out how they were made.
When the newsagent opened at six, I bought sixty
sheets of brightly colored tissue paper in an assortment
of shades. When the hardware store opened at seven, I
bought twelve thin green garden canes, a roll of green
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