Back home after a longer absence. It’s a beautiful day I am spending outside, reading. Usually on such a day, I pass by a small kiosk where an old man sells newspapers and journals and where I am a regular customer. We know each other since years, the old, friendly, soft-spoken gentleman in his seventies and I. When I say, we “know” each other, it means he knows what I buy and read, and since he is always also reading a book (usually a classic), we give each other a nod, acknowledging that we belong to the same secret society of readers. A few times we had a short chat, and I gathered from the way he talked that he is an educated person with a philosophical attitude to life who needs to top up the ridiculous pension the state pays to people who have all their life gone to work and were honest citizens, in order to be able to pay his utility bills and medicaments.
But this time, something is different. The kiosk is closed. Easter holiday, I think. But I am wrong. “Sales person wanted for this kiosk” says the announcement pinned on the closed kiosk. It seems that my friend, the newspaper seller, has found a better occupation. At least that’s what I tell myself without really believing it…
Postscript:
I passed by the same kiosk a few days later – and the newspaper seller was back! He will move to relatives in another town in a few days. I was very glad to see him and wished him all the best for his new chapter in life.
All this on Orthodox Easter. It seems like somebody wanted to teach the unbelieving Thomas a lesson.
© Thomas Hübner and mytwostotinki.com, 2014-8. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Thomas Hübner and mytwostotinki.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Facebook
RSS
Twitter