"Yes, I remember that music box and the woman who bought it. Never saw her here before, never saw her here again." At the head of aisle after aisle of party dresses, logo-festooned jerseys, shoes of all sizes, used books, toys, kitchen utensils, and anything else you might want if you could not afford to shop in Union Square, Caydance listened to a woman cashier with whom -- on Thrift Town visits inspired by classroom needs -- she often chatted.

"It was a slow day, a few weeks after Christmas. The lady who purchased the music box was wearing black leather boots and a coat too expensive to wear in the Mission District. Her chestnut hair was smooth as silk. The emerald studs on her ears were clearly real."

The cashier looked again through Caydance's handheld slide viewer. "Inside the glass top of the music box, there was at that time a ballerina. Once she had danced in a circle, but at Thrift Town, she no longer moved. I asked the purchaser if the mechanism that played the music was working. She played it for me, but I did not recognize the song. She said it was a French song. I wanted to know her name, but she paid in cash."