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Runaways
by Deirdre Faughey 10/01/2009Neighborhood: Across the River, Brooklyn
The weather is turning. At home I didn’t notice the wind, but by the time we’d walked all the way to the library our ponytails held only half as much hair as they did when we left. There was an easy remedy: hold the band between your teeth, gather up the loose strands, pull them [...]
It Was Me (part 2)
by Hane Selmani 01/13/2008Neighborhood: All Over, Manhattan
After our engagement my family had decided that I would be allowed to talk to Fatmir on the phone. When my niece was engaged she had to make secret phone calls, but my family was modern. In anticipation for the phone call Asllan and Behare went out and took Sokol’s three boys. My Mom and [...]
It Was Me (part 1)
by Hane Selmani 01/06/2008Neighborhood: All Over, Manhattan
It was me, the girl standing in front of the Krusq, the wedding party, wearing a wedding dress. How did it happen? What went wrong? I had asked God to change things. I didn’t like the man I was going to marry — but I had no choice. “On the day you were born God [...]
A Force of Nature: Patrick O’Connell
by M. O’Connell 01/06/2008Neighborhood: Bronx, East Bronx
A few years ago in my father’s eighty-first year, my brother Patrick and I went to his house to spend Thanksgiving. My father lived in the Bronx at that time. We are the only children in the family still living in New York. Neither of us particularly wanted to spend the day in my father’s [...]
Chilling Out on the M5
by Ellen Schecter 08/24/2007Neighborhood: Upper West Side
August 1987. New York City shimmers in the heat. Everyone we know is on vacation. “Where’s Daddy?” Anna whimpers. She’s two. “I want Daddy.” “I do, too, but he’s at work, Annie.” I try to edit the anger out of my voice. “He’s very busy. He’s getting ready for a trial. Do you know what a trial is?” “I know, I [...]
The Silent Minority
by Joseph Scalia 07/12/2007Neighborhood: Jamaica, Queens
In the divorce papers filed by my ex-wife, the second one I mean, she said I never paid attention to her. While we were still living in the same house she also said, “You never listen to me.” “What?” I generally responded from the other room. For the record, I am, in fact, a great listener. But [...]
To Every Dog Its Bone
by Suzanne Comeau 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Lower East Side
I felt like I owed him something, even if I couldn’t say what. It wasn’t money. I closed my eyes like a dead man and gave those coins to the nuns on the corner. My brother is a music publisher. I’m not really sure what this means, but I’m proud. People always ask about it. [...]
Rory
by Thomas R. Pryor 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Outer Boroughs, Queens
Early March 1954, in a Woodside apartment overlooking the # 7 Subway El and the Long Island Railroad station below it, two express trains crisscrossed, one rattling over the other. “Bob, please get me some food.” Patricia pleaded from the kitchen to the living room. “There’s plenty of food,” Bob answered as he played with the bunny [...]
What Should We Speak at Dinner?
by Claudine Corbanese 12/16/2006Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Flatbush
“What should we serve for dinner?” often translates, for me, into, “What should we speak at dinner?” My household is the confluence of five languages. I’m French and my husband is Haitian and Italian. Our older son married a young woman from Taiwan while our younger son’s fiancée is from Trinidad. This mélange of native [...]
Lobbying for Adventure
by Julie Metz 12/08/2006Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Park Slope
“It’s not like I am going to die or anything.” My ten-year-old daughter Liza is begging me to let her walk alone to her school bus stop three streets from our Brooklyn apartment. She is as persistent as a lawyer in court, who, sensing that victory is at hand, refuses to let up on the line [...]
Finding Fred: Death and Ice Cream
by Allan Goldstein 07/19/2006Neighborhood: All Over, Brooklyn
I was riding in our friend’s red, rattling car. The car that had been filled with balloons to celebrate my last birthday—the time we traveled to visit Mom. Now my wife and I were going to inform my forty-five year old brother of her death. To inform, support, and console my kid brother—the brother who [...]
Tour Guide to the Real New York City
by Kate Walter 06/30/2006Neighborhood: East Village
I have no kids and never wanted any, so I was a bit anxious about playing tour guide for my 14 year old niece, Shannon, on her first visit to New York City. But my brother John said she could not wait to see Manhattan. It was quite a trip for an eighth grader from [...]
