The Corner Store by Albert Edward Idell

Author:Albert Edward Idell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, life
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1953-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

There was a smear on the side window. Honey should have noticed it, or Mrs. Waldman. One thing I do like is clean store windows, Chester thought. He examined the front window and the back, where the telephone booths were built. They were clean, which only made the smear more noticeable. He’d have to tell Mary when she came in.

This was the nicest time of the day, when the newspaper rush was over and most of his customers were having dinner. In another half hour people would be coming in to buy containers of ice cream for dessert, but now the store was empty. It was almost seven o’clock, but out on the street it was still broad daylight. Summer was almost here again; they’d had daylight saving for a week. Why hadn’t they named it “daylight spending”? That’s what it was, using the daylight rather than saving it. Watching the boys playing hockey on roller skates he forgot the smear. The puck was a short length of broomstick. What if it hit one of the windows? He could hardly chase the kids away—they had all bought their hockey sticks from him. Besides, what difference did it make? All the glass was insured.

He went over to the side doorway, where he could see them better. A colored boy was running the puck, his stick guiding it from side to side, his body swaying toward whichever way he wished to turn. Another colored boy, much shorter and darker, intercepted him and sent the puck down the street in a low arc.

It was the same in all the sports on the street. The colored boys were usually a little quicker than the white ones. That’s why they were always divided when sides were chosen. A good thing, too. It would be bad to have all the colored boys on one side.

He wondered who these two were. Several Negro families had moved into houses on Camac Street.

Ernie Murray took the puck from the Thomas boy. Ernie was tall, slender, and handsome, with the complexion of a bar of Hershey’s milk chocolate. Which reminded him, he’d have to put Hershey bars on Spewack’s order; there weren’t any left, unless Helen or Dick had put a box of them in the wrong place, as happened sometimes.

Ernie’s father worked in the post office and they owned their own house, up on the next block of Camac. Ernie had the puck again and raced up the street with it, the others in full chase. Wonderful how exciting a street game could be, even just watching it.

Saul Gerson stopped outside. “Hello, Mr. Jones.”

“Hello, Saul. Say, tell me something. Why do they call it ‘daylight saving’ instead of ‘daylight spending’? Seems to me these kids are spending it—in the best way possible. I wish I could join them.”

“Why is ‘saving’ something we should do and ‘hoarding,’ which is the same thing, something we shouldn’t do?”

“A question on a par with mine.”

“Or when you watch a murderer killing off

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.