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"You’ve got your ticket?"
Speechless, the boy nods; his father extends his hand He feels like he’s being fired from a job When they shake, his father squeezes before he does, ether The handshake is aard and e; they’re both relieved when it’s over
"Go on now," his father urges with false cheer "You don’t want to ets out, still clutching his paper sack of lunch It feels totee of a childhood not so much departed as obliterated He hoists his suitcase froe froesture of last- to the bus, even send hi happens The boy advances to the bus, places his bag in one of the open bays, and takes his place in line
"Cleveland!" the driver bellows "All aboard for Cleveland!"
There is some confusion at the head of the line Ato explain While everyone waits for the matter to be sorted out, the woman just ahead of the boy turns toward hi blue eyes, and a bearing that strikes hi an ocean liner, not a dirty," she says e," he explains, the word thick in his throat When the wo to Harvard"
She reveals a smile of absurdly false teeth "How marvelous A Harvard man Your parents must be very proud"
His turn comes; he hands his ticket to the driver, moves down the aisle, and selects a seat at the rear because it is as far away froe buses for New York; after a night sleeping on a hard bench in the Port Authority station, his suitcase tucked under his legs, he will catch the first bus to Boston, departing at five AM As the big diesel rumbles to life, he finally turns his face toward theThe rain has returned, dotting the glass The spot where his father parked is e in his lap It’s surprising, how hungry he is He tears into the sandwich; six bites and it’s gone He downs thethe carton from his lips The carrots are next, devoured in an instant He barely tastes any of it; the point is simply to eat, to fill an empty space When all else is done, he opens the little box of cookies, pausing to regard its colorful illustrations of caged circus creatures: the polar bear, the lion, the elephant, the gorilla Barnum’s Animal Crackers have been a staple of his childhood, yet it is only now that he notices that the anies; each is a ue and lets itthe walls of his mouth with its vanilla sweetness, then another and another, until the box is e for sleep to come
--
Why do I relate this scene in the third person? I suppose because it’s easier I know my father meant well, but it took iven hi His unreadable face, his casually declarative tone: all these years later, I still puzzle over the apparent ease hich he dispatched reat rewards of raising a son would be the simple enjoyment of his company as heno son of my own, I can neither confirm nor deny this
So it was that I arrived at Harvard University in September 1989--the Soviet Union on the brink of collapse, the econoeneral decline, the national mood one of weary boredom with a decade of drift--friendless, orphaned in all but name, with few possessions and no idea ould become of me I had never set foot on the cah, and after the past twenty-four hours in transit,around me possessed an almost hallucinatory quality Froe (arette-strewn platform into the hubbub of Harvard Square It appeared that the season had changed during land autuly blue it was practically audible In my jeans and slept-in T-shirt, I shivered as a dry breeze moved over me The hour was just shy of noon, the square thick with people, all of thes, hter passing between them with the crisp assuredness of batons in a relay race I had entered an alien realm, but this was holesworth Hall, though, reluctant to ask anyone for directions--I doubted they’d even stop to talk tothat I was famished, Ifor someplace inexpensive to eat