The Ladies of Wifi
In the Italian restaurant overlooking a busy bus station and the remarkable Hungarian parliament building, three women exclaim, “Hotspot? Hotspot?” in unison. The waiter gives them the password and they … Continue reading
Random Apple of Kindness
Our checkout woman has short, funky blonde hair and she’s been very unhappily scanning groceries for a ceaseless line of customers. I don’t blame her for being grumpy. I’m with … Continue reading
Tram 6: Another Abbreviated Love Story
They see each other while she is a passenger and he waits at the stop. As the tram slows and the doors opens, they both lift their chins just a … Continue reading
Three of a Kind
Even before you can recognize their similarity, you can read from non-verbals that they are related. The older woman picks something off the shoulder of the woman who must be … Continue reading
Places I’ve Gone on Account of a Book
I read a book one day and my whole life was changed…Where were the kindred spirits with whom I could talk? Where was the country in which I’d find the … Continue reading
Under Lock and Dream
I left him to his envy. A colleague’s envy, when all is said and done, is the scholar’s one reward on earth. I didn’t tell him that in all likelihood … Continue reading
Mess Things Up.
After all, there is nothing but failure. If at least we have the will to fail we make progress. If we give up each time before we have started we … Continue reading
My First Trip to Europe Anxiety. Part II.
Bus and tram trip from the airport through Prague. An old Army barracks being renovated into a mall, a KFC. Lots of graffiti, signs–I see them and the words mean … Continue reading
Postcard for Addy #2: Budapest and Vienna
Dear Addy, Greetings, dear niece of mine. I’ll see you soon (just in time for your 6th birthday!), but I wanted to share a few more pictures from my trip. … Continue reading
You Can Tell Me
Yes, it’s true, I was speaking to myself, but don’t we all? We all have a second person buried inside us, a dear friend to whom we whisper to our … Continue reading
Free.
One minute I am straining every nerve to be the sort of person I was expected to be and shaking in my boots for fear I would fail–and the next … Continue reading
Overhead
Still not moving–thirty minutes after the departure time. Passengers check the clocks on their cell phones, sigh, slap their legs, make utterances in their native tongues. When the bus to … Continue reading
Visas and Patience
He took the window seat and buckled himself in. His adult daughter shuffled belongings around the overhead compartment and gave commentary on her discomfort. He nodded at her words, not … Continue reading
Respect
I get to sit by him! The little old Japanese man I spotted back in the glacial airport check-in lines–he’s in my row and he will be spied upon. He … Continue reading
(Nearly Forgot You, Friday)
Next week we’ll go back to Europe. For now, let’s pick something up from to Georgia, USA. * Her prayers, when she remembered to say them, were usually perfunctory but … Continue reading
Next Stop
As usual, stops were not announced on the train. People familiar with the route rushed the hallways as we pulled into a station–or the last scraps of one. The train … Continue reading
You Can Read Over My Shoulder, But You Can’t Come Along
In the shuttle bus to the airplane, I break into scraps of conversational Turkish with a group of teenage boys from Kahramanmaraş. Even the boldest among them–a boy with smooth … Continue reading
Hustle Up
And when you die will it have mattered a damn whether you ever lived or not? -W. Somerset Maugham. Christmas Holiday.
Carpe Diem, Handsome Farmer
He had been handsome when younger; he remained handsome, but had reached an age where people gazed at him like his days were numbered. He shuffled down the narrow hallway … Continue reading
Any Day Now…
All that he had now was an idea that one day something would happen. And he would be taken by a set of events to the place he should go. … Continue reading
The Nice Thing About Strangers 