Take Me
I’m renting an apartment in Budapest for a week. It’s an adorable building in a great location. The apartment has the amenities I sought, it is quiet and clean. However, … Continue reading
Compassion
She chooses her clothes carefully, this seems clear. Her shoes are leather, the hat on her head is fashionable, the hair underneath well-kept. She is staring ahead and muttering, shaking … 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
Must Love (Beware of) Dogs
It’s a damp Sunday morning. There’s a vague rain and a gray haze. Between the center of the city and the airport, patches of trees are a deep green like … Continue reading
How To Be Clever
The man who writes very little always has the advantage over the one who writes a lot, since his every phrase is carefully constructed; just as the person who stays … Continue reading
Seatmate
On the train from Novi Sad to Budapest, a woman parks herself right next to me, though half of the train is empty. Perhaps she wants a guaranteed seat next … Continue reading
There There
He is the man with dark, well-slicked hair and a perfectly pressed dress shirt–imposing even in the shuttle to the airplane. He helps a little old lady move her suitcase … 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
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
A Warning for the End of the Wanderlust
I would become a respectable person. I left the university, trained for my father’s profession, went abroad to get a better grasp of things, then went home and worked hard … Continue reading
To Pest From Buda L.O.V.E.
Monday I’ll begin a few weeks of putting myself at the mercy of strangers in Turkey as I try to learn their remarkable language. This will most certainly lead to … 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
(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.
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 Shared Eyebrow and the Runaway Tablet
He has a blue jogging suit and winter coat, she wears leggings as pants with a ski jacket. They stand close while waiting for the plane. She tries to hand … Continue reading
The Nice Thing About Strangers 