Best Story of the Week…April 28

 On my way to the Park in the morning, I pass a building with a very young doorman working the night shift.

  All of 19, tall and gangly with a full beard, reminding me just a little of a young Abraham Lincoln.

  One day we got to talking on what it’s like working from dusk till dawn while the city sleeps, him shrugging, shy as a new colt.

 I said it was a great opportunity to read.

 When he said, “I don’t do much’a that,” it bothered me.

 It was as if that quiet lobby was his own private library, unbeknownst to him.

  I decided to make him a bookmark…a picture of a boy, hugging a book. Before I went to Staples to laminate it, quoted John Adams on the back:

  You will never be alone, with a poet in your pocket, but at the last minute urbanized it, figuring John wouldn’t mind….

  If you have a book, you’ll always have a friend, presenting it to him hoping it would inspire him to read.

 Now leaving matters to the gods, never brought it up again.

 It’s Monday, four months later, when he’s outside watering down the sidewalk.

 “Hey, he says, how are ya?” more animated than I’ve ever seen him.

 “Wanna tell ya, how much I’ve been readin’…on my 7th book,” he said proudly.

 To say I was floored as well as pleased, is an understatement.

 “Really? That’s great. Are you using your bookmark?”

  He drops the hose, runs inside to grab his current book, pulling the bookmark out before galloping back outside, brandishing it like a medal.

 “I show everybody so they can see what Johnny Adams said.”

  Johnny Adams?

  As I absorbed his smile peeking out from his whisk broom of a beard, I knew, if it meant it got him reading, then all was well with Johnny looking down approvingly, from the ether.

SB