Solâs apartment and he watched through the window while Sol gave them graham crackers and milk. He said he was surprised the place was so small and didnât have any decorations on the walls.
He laughed, remembering how angry Sol was when he spotted him peering in over the windowsill. He remembered feeling that Sol would have whipped him with a strap if he could have! Solâs brother took Charlie back to the Home in a taxi and they never mentioned the incident again.
Charlie said he would have another surprise trip for me in a few days!
Here are some other things Charlie does: He takes listings on new houses. He calls banks and insurance companies and mortgage brokers to get money for himself and other people. In the evenings he shows houses and telephones people. He doesnât have a realtorâs license because heâs afraid to take the test, so Mrs. Mittleman does all his paper work.
In the mornings sometimes we go over the birth and obituary columns in the local papers. People with more children need bigger homes. Widows and widowers want to move to smaller homes.
In the afternoon he coaches the team. They play 6 man football in a league with 7 other private schools and theyâve won the championship every year since Charlie was coach.
Every night Mr. Mittleman shows his movies and they talk business after.
I like to drive into the city with Charlie when the light is just beginning before most people wake up. The city looks beautiful from the bridge. What I think about is how they get enough food into it every day, day after day, to feed 8 million people plus commuters.
I said this to Charlie this morning and he told me he thinks about the exact same thing sometimes and that his conclusion is that it proves the city isnât dying the way people say it is. He said if he still had his own family he would bring his children up in the city.
Do you think about your daughter a lot? I asked.
No, he said.
But donât you think about how she keeps changing and youâre not there to see the changes?
He said he still sees her sometimes if heâs in her neighborhood and that he used to wonder about himself because he didnât miss her, but he says he stopped wondering a few years ago. He sends money to his ex-wife every month and heâll pay for college if Sandy goes there.
The only thing I think about sometimes, he said, is that after she gets away from home and gets married and has a family, that maybe then weâll be able to be pretty good friends. He asked me if I thought that sounded funny and I said it didnât. He said he sees the scene in his head sometimes, of him visiting her and her husband and her children and of them having nice evenings together.
Coming home he told me that Dr. Fogel used to make fun of him and ask him when he was going to learn to read. Who do you think you areâRabbi Akiba? Dr. Fogel would say. He used to send him out of the classroom and tell him to return when he was 40 years old.
What I imagined Dr. Fogel saying to him at the Home yesterday if Charlie walked into his classroom: GO HOME. YOUâRE 17 MONTHS EARLY!
Charlie said a boy at the Home told him Dr. Fogel hasnât been there for 4 weeks!
I see Charlie yawning. A good place to stop. The end of a good day!
THURSDAY
Today we went to lunch for the 2nd time with the man from the city about Charlieâs big project. The man didnât like me being with them but Charlie told him not to worry, that I was an orphan and didnât understand things. The man looked at me and I gave him my blank look and then they talked business.
What theyâre going to do: Charlie has an option on residential land which will be rezoned so they can build a factory. Heâll sell the land to the city for an Industrial Renewal Project in a Model Cities Area. Then heâll take the profits from the land and put it into the building at special low interest rates and the result will be what
He laughed, remembering how angry Sol was when he spotted him peering in over the windowsill. He remembered feeling that Sol would have whipped him with a strap if he could have! Solâs brother took Charlie back to the Home in a taxi and they never mentioned the incident again.
Charlie said he would have another surprise trip for me in a few days!
Here are some other things Charlie does: He takes listings on new houses. He calls banks and insurance companies and mortgage brokers to get money for himself and other people. In the evenings he shows houses and telephones people. He doesnât have a realtorâs license because heâs afraid to take the test, so Mrs. Mittleman does all his paper work.
In the mornings sometimes we go over the birth and obituary columns in the local papers. People with more children need bigger homes. Widows and widowers want to move to smaller homes.
In the afternoon he coaches the team. They play 6 man football in a league with 7 other private schools and theyâve won the championship every year since Charlie was coach.
Every night Mr. Mittleman shows his movies and they talk business after.
I like to drive into the city with Charlie when the light is just beginning before most people wake up. The city looks beautiful from the bridge. What I think about is how they get enough food into it every day, day after day, to feed 8 million people plus commuters.
I said this to Charlie this morning and he told me he thinks about the exact same thing sometimes and that his conclusion is that it proves the city isnât dying the way people say it is. He said if he still had his own family he would bring his children up in the city.
Do you think about your daughter a lot? I asked.
No, he said.
But donât you think about how she keeps changing and youâre not there to see the changes?
He said he still sees her sometimes if heâs in her neighborhood and that he used to wonder about himself because he didnât miss her, but he says he stopped wondering a few years ago. He sends money to his ex-wife every month and heâll pay for college if Sandy goes there.
The only thing I think about sometimes, he said, is that after she gets away from home and gets married and has a family, that maybe then weâll be able to be pretty good friends. He asked me if I thought that sounded funny and I said it didnât. He said he sees the scene in his head sometimes, of him visiting her and her husband and her children and of them having nice evenings together.
Coming home he told me that Dr. Fogel used to make fun of him and ask him when he was going to learn to read. Who do you think you areâRabbi Akiba? Dr. Fogel would say. He used to send him out of the classroom and tell him to return when he was 40 years old.
What I imagined Dr. Fogel saying to him at the Home yesterday if Charlie walked into his classroom: GO HOME. YOUâRE 17 MONTHS EARLY!
Charlie said a boy at the Home told him Dr. Fogel hasnât been there for 4 weeks!
I see Charlie yawning. A good place to stop. The end of a good day!
THURSDAY
Today we went to lunch for the 2nd time with the man from the city about Charlieâs big project. The man didnât like me being with them but Charlie told him not to worry, that I was an orphan and didnât understand things. The man looked at me and I gave him my blank look and then they talked business.
What theyâre going to do: Charlie has an option on residential land which will be rezoned so they can build a factory. Heâll sell the land to the city for an Industrial Renewal Project in a Model Cities Area. Then heâll take the profits from the land and put it into the building at special low interest rates and the result will be what
Similar Books
