HAPPINESS
On Sunday, at the hotel in Pasadena, I got into the elevator with my luggage in one hand and a book in the other.
A woman on the elevator said, “Look at you. That is smart. You’ve got a book to travel with. I meant to bring a book with me and forgot.”
I said, “Here. Take this one.”
“Really?” she said.
“I just finished it,” I said. “I loved it. It would make me so happy to pass it on to you.”
“Well, thank you very much,” she said. “I think I will take you up on that.”
She took the book from me and held it in her hands and looked down at it. “What’s it about?” she said.
“It’s about being human,” I said. “It’s about being kind. It’s about everything.”
“All right then,” she said.
The whole exchange made me inexplicably happy.
And the book?
It was Wonder, by R. J. Palacio.

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