All of us have felt guilty at one time or another for something we’ve done to cause misfortune to another person. But imagine the guilt feelings of young Sophie Jones, her family’s sole survivor in a terrific automobile crash. In Sweet Misfortune, Sophie had been in the back seat of her family’s crushed Volvo.
This innocent tyke feels she caused the violent accident by distracting her father who turned around to look at the message on her fortune cookie. Sophie, her father and mother, and her grandmother, were driving home after celebrating Sophie’s ninth birthday at an Oriental restaurant. Sophie loves to read the small slips of paper inside the fortune cookies.
In Sweet Misfortune, Ellen, the policewoman who finds orphaned Sophie grieving in the rain along a curb after the horrific accident, tries to console the young girl, telling her that what happened was not her fault. Nevertheless, innocent Sophie remains unconvinced. Oddly enough, officer Ellen is childless. She adopts young Sophie and bestows upon her the love her deceased family can no longer give her. Ellen’s love through the years, in many ways, helps Sophie adjust. But Ellen cannot eradicate Sophie’s lingering guilt.
As Sophie grows to womanhood, her attitude toward life, love, and any real dream of happiness, is very negative. She has opened a very successful chocolate shop where customers regularly buy her delicious wholesome homemade chocolate treats. Oddly, one of her best sellers is a Misfortune Cookie. This bitter tasting chocolate treat is barely edible because in many ways, Sophie believes it is a taste of the pessimistic elements in life that all of us face sooner or later. Sophie writes the misfortunes herself such as: Have patience; rainy days will soon return.
Sophie falls in love with a handsome young man and together, they make plans to marry. This is hardly conceivable for Sophie who feels happiness is a fleeting phantom of the imagination. To her misfortune, when her betrothed learns of Sophie's past misfortune as a young girl, he meets with her and abruptly tells her their wedding is off. That’s it: point blank — no explanation — no discussion.
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