It was a day when things just fell into place. Since the streets in the area are being resurfaced and massive equipment and manpower are disrupting traffic and parking, I had to take the floating bookshop elsewhere. I found no parking on Avenue U, but as soon as I rolled up to Bay Parkway a car vacated the last spot on 84th Street, as close as I could get without having to feed the meter. I had to lug the crates only 50 yards. I hoped it was a good omen. Indeed it was. An MTA construction foreman working on the remodeling of the station nearby bought four hard cover thrillers. He beat Jack to the punch, limiting the employee of Chase Bank, one of my best customers, to three. A gentleman then purchased eight children's books, and another pounced on a book of Ronald Reagan's presidential speeches, which I was proud to sell. It was donated yesterday by the 84-year old veteran. Thanks, folks.
Then it was off to the airport to pick up my great niece Carmen, 29, and her sons Valentino, almost eleven, and Yuri, four. I hadn't seen them since Val was Yuri's age and size. He's now twice that size and calls his little brother "piccolo." Neither speaks any English, of course, the same for their mom. My Italian is very bad these days, so I have to add "Capeesh?" whenever I say something to them in their native tongue. I was surprised how thin Carmen is. She weighs a lot less than she did years ago. I guess being a young single mom will do that to you. Of course, her mother was thrilled to see them. She now has a boat load staying in the apartment, six counting Onofrio, Noemi and little Olivia. They are beautiful kids. My sister, their great grandmother, was shopping, but she left me a plate of sausages and a salad.
Before leaving, I ran into Rosanne, who had just finished cleaning the house across the street, where that great family will celebrate Christmas Eve. A year or so ago I wrote a story centered on the block we grew up on, and mentioned her late dad, Nick. I wrote down the info and, thrilled, she said she would look it up tonight on the web. Tomorrow is her 46th birthday. I remember her riding around on her Big Wheel, cute as can be. For some reason, that memory brings the passage of time front and center like no other.
I found a great feature regarding Kindle sales - an app that leads to actual sales, which is far superior to the ranking that appears on Amazon's pages. I had hoped Killing had had ten sales. It's seven, a profit of 14 bucks and change.
It was a great day.
Read Vic's stories, free:
http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
No comments:
Post a Comment