Friday the 14th

My thanks to the kind folks who put a nice dent in the floating book shop’s inventory, and to the gentleman who donated a handful of Russian books. There’s plenty going on in the world but none of the news seems fresh outside of the first (only?) guilty plea in the Durham probe of the upper echelon of the FBI’s plot to oust President Trump, and the Federal Court’s 3–0 ruling that Hillary does not have to sit for a deposition about her use of a private server for government work. No doubt cynics will be wondering what kind of dirt she has on the three.

Here’s an excerpt from chapter eleven of Class of ’67. It occurs while Nick, who isn’t a writer, is out selling books curbside:

He was roused from the dark musings by the passing of an elderly couple speaking Italian, so rare in these parts nowadays. It filled him with joy, brought a glaze to his eyes. He resisted the temptation to say something, so out of practice was he since the passing of his parents. He’d once spoken the language fairly well. He recalled the letters he’d written in Italian to his parents while in the Navy. He’d found them while cleaning out the apartment they’d rented for 50 years, so touched that his mom had saved them. He still had them. He would take them to the grave. He’d so admired their self-reliance, how they’d never asked for anything from anybody. He’d striven to follow that example. His dad, a janitor, had worked until he was no longer physically able to in his late seventies. His mom, a tireless homemaker, earned money knitting and sewing. He should not have been surprised when she did not ask him to move in with her after the passing of his father. She’d always respected his privacy. He visited her more frequently, in part to allay guilt. She was self-sufficient until the day she died despite speaking hardly any English.

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