Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks

Author:Tom Hanks [Hanks, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781101946152
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

Deear Mom,

How are you I am fine

Your friends sport car is like a racecar. I like how loud the motor goes and working the radio.

I saw you in the hotel just now and wonder what is my big surprise?????? ?

I am going to leave this letter in a place where it will be a SURPEIZE for you. After you find it right me back on this tiperighter that is so cooooool and esy to do.

Love

Kenny Stahl

Kenny folded the letter as best he could and put it into a hotel envelope and licked the seal, careful not to cut his tongue on the sharp edge. He wrote TO MOM on the front with a Leamington Hotel pen, then looked for a place to hide the letter, deciding the best place would be in a desk drawer under a few pages of Leamington Hotel stationery.

Kenny was playing with some rubber bands when his mom came back into her office. She was with a man who had dark brown skin and the straightest, blackest hair. “Kenny, this is Mr. Garcia. He let us borrow his car for the ride down today.”

“Hello,” Kenny said. “That’s your car? The sports car?”

“It is,” Mr. Garcia said. “I’m glad to meet you. But let’s do it proper, shall we? Stand up.”

Kenny did as he was told.

“Now,” Mr. Garcia continued, “we shake hands. Grab firm now.”

Kenny squeezed Mr. Garcia’s hand as hard as he could.

“Don’t hurt me.” Mr. Garcia chuckled. Kenny’s mom beamed at the two men. “Now, look me in the eye, just like I look at you. Good. Now you say, ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you.’ ”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kenny repeated.

“Now comes the most important part. We ask each other a question, engage each other, man to man, see? I’m going to ask you this—do you know what ‘Fiat’ stands for?”

Kenny shook his head, because he was confused by the question and because he had no idea what was going on. No one had ever explained to him how to shake hands.

“ ‘Fix it again, Tony.’ ” Mr. Garcia laughed. “Now you ask me a question. Go ahead.”

“Um.” Kenny had to think of something to say. He was looking at Mr. Garcia’s head of thick, jet-black hair, held stiffly in place and so shiny. That was when he remembered seeing Mr. Garcia before, when he was little, when he was playing in the hotel with his brother and sister. He remembered that Mr. Garcia did not work in the kitchen with his dad, but would come in from the lobby wearing a suit. “You work here, too, like my mom, don’t you?”

Mr. Garcia and his mom shared a glance and a smile. “I used to, Kenny, but not anymore. Now I’m at the Senator.”

“You’re a senator?” Kenny knew what a senator was from the news on Channel 12.

“Mr. Garcia works at the Senator Hotel, Kenny,” his mother said. “And he has a big surprise for you.”

“You haven’t told him?” Mr. Garcia asked.

“I thought it should be your treat,” she said.

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