Donut Shop 28th Avenue at 7th New York City, 1992 This donut shop has two U shaped counters, a shape that encourages conversation between customers and customers and staff. Midnight. Several of us are sitting at the U closest to the door. There is also a steady stream of people coming in off the street…
Category: Stories
Plaza. A New York Day, 1992
Night. Cold. A thin handsome black man with a mustache stands to the side of the Plaza Hotel. “Monday is a hard day for bums,” he says. I drop a quarter in his cup and walk on. Just behind, a woman in a long white cashmere coat approaches. “Monday is a hard day for bums,”…
The Sweater
This story is based on an encounter with an elderly woman in Prague a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. An inflation had destroyed the savings of retirees. This woman is selling her possessions to survive. Sweater Prague, 1993 At the top of a wide stairway bringing subway passengers to a huge…
Raphael. A Story.
This is a story I wrote in 1992. It is based on my meeting a young Russian man in Trabazon, Turkey. Raphael His was the bright face who said a few words while I inspected three tin jumping frogs in the Russian Bazaar. A few days later he stops me at the market’s edge where…
William Rubel 