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Category:
Literary Fiction
Publisher: Smashwords.com
ISBN-10: 1301310387
Type: Fiction
Copyright: Oct 1, 2012
ISBN-13: 9781301310388
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
If you have experienced hospitality in unexpected times and places, you will identify with the characters in this short story collection.
Hospitality can transcend barriers of culture, religion, and class. It can be as simple as giving food, drink, or shelter to friends, family, or strangers. Sometimes it is much more than that. For the characters in these stories hospitality was important to the giver and the recipient.
Excerpt
Deborah brought out a piece of paper with the address of a boarding house. Also scribbled on the paper were details of where to catch a trolley that would take them there and which coins to use on the trolley.
She searched for coins in her bag and studied them in her hand. “Here, David. When we get on the trolley, hand this to the driver. And, remember to speak politely in English. We are in America now. We will speak English.”
They walked swiftly to the crowded street bordering the park. David was so glad to be walking on a surface that did not heave and pitch under his feet.
They waited a few minutes on a corner before a trolley approached. Deborah checked the sign on it and said, “That’s it, David. You get on first, and remember to be polite.”
David handed his coin to the driver and said, “Good morning, Sir.” His English was very good.
The driver was used to hearing a lot of foreign accents and broken English. He was not used to seeing such a polite little immigrant. He replied, “Good morning, young man.”
Deborah also said, “Good morning, Sir. Such a beautiful day in America.”
She handed him her coin and walked just behind David to the nearest empty seats together.
They climbed the steps to the boarding house. Deborah knocked twice, then pushed a button. They heard a loud buzzer.
A tall woman with black hair and blue eyes opened the door, wiping her hands on her white apron.
“Yes, come on in,” she said. “You have come about a room, yes?” She had a very strong Irish accent. “And, how about the lad? You want a room for him too?” she asked.
Deborah said, “He is my nephew. We have come from Austria to make our home in America.”
“I don’t usually take children,” said the tall woman. “They would be a pain, running up and down the stairs and bothering everyone. My boarders are mostly men. Some of them work at night, and I keep the house quiet so they can sleep in the daytime.”
David stepped forward and said in his best English, “I am not a child Ma’am. I am 12 years old and had my Bar Mitzvah two months ago. The Rabbi complimented me on my reading from the Torah. He said I was the best he had heard in our whole town. We are very tired now from a long journey across the ocean. May we please have a room?”
His curly brown hair and innocent brown eyes melted Mary O’Connor’s heart.
David stepped back respectfully to wait for her answer.
“Well then, I suppose I could take you and your aunt in since you are no longer a child. What is your name?” she asked.
“David Joseph Mayer,” he said.
“My late husband was a Joseph, but not your kind. Not at all your kind. My name is Mary Ann O’Connor,” she said. She held her hand out to David.
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