Read "The Noise of the World" by Adriana Spadoni online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The next afternoon while Anne packed her trunk, her mother kept wandering to the door and gazing in the puzzled excitement of a child who encounters something pleasant, but so extraordinary and unexpected that its delight is lost in bewilderment -- like being confronted with a Christmas tree on the Fourth of July. Without turning from her task, Anne felt her come, stare, decide to say something and go, unable to express her thought.
At last the trunk was packed, locked and corded. Anne rose and smiled at her mother, again in the doorway.