The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
The Lone Star and her Husband
A man with a pink-striped polo shirt with a nonetheless tough disposition walks by the café window. He sees the sixty-something red-haired woman at a table inside. He breaks out in a smile. A toddler walks along, one hand in her mother’s hand, the other arm swinging to keep up with her mother’s pace. They both smile at the woman as well, while she fidgets with her gold jewelry and lightly touches the lines around her eyes.
She catches my gaze and grin as well, then give a sort of excuse, “Everyone smiles at you!” She replies that it’s probably because she’s from Texas.
She waits at the table for two in the café while her husband makes several trips to deliver their various lunch elements. One item at a time he totes a plate with a caramel pecan roll, two beverages, a plate with soup and bread, a plate with a sandwich. As he passes me, scribbling in my notebook, he remarks: “Dear Mom and Dad, I am sitting in a restaurant. Classes are going well. Please send money.” I light up and she seems relieved that his teasing is well-received.
He puts the straw in her soda. She has claimed a wobbly table and he tries to repair it with some folded napkins. She tells him not to bother, instead they restrict their movements slightly. Though they eat their small meal in relative silence, it does move like a calm and courteous love.
–Colorado
Istanbul.
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
That was amazing, I’m just another stranger from Brazil, who wrote an essay on Ethics and Morals in Portuguese… I’ve seen you liked that article, so I came to see your works,You write so well, I’ve enjoyed reading it very much, thank you. ^^
In fact, reading you helps me a lot with my own writing in English, I find your style to be something that “unblocks” or unlocks my own. Just as it happened when I’ve read the Brazilian writer Lima Barreto, for my Portuguese.
Anyway, farewell and good travels, or “Good meetings”, as Spinoza would put. =)
Thank you, Octavio! I appreciate you coming to visit the site. I am a huge fan of Fernando Pessoa from Lisbon. It reminds me that in all languages, we can be fundamentally the same sorts of dreamers. 🙂
Nice to meet you!
Paige
I liked this, it made me think of my parents………….
I like that, by teasing me, I felt I was being adopted. When I left, I gave them a huge smile and said goodbye. He was surprised, but she waved me on like an old friend.
Like the quick reads.
a daily story, nicely told. good job.
Pingback: The Top Ten Search Terms: Seek and Ye Shall Find | The Nice Thing About Strangers