A nicely dressed, young Chinese woman stopped at my table. She read the back cover of IWKYA and said, “Your wife is a gem.”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m very lucky.”
She didn’t buy.
But within an hour a PhD student (Educational Psychology) stopped. “Where you from?” I asked.
“Canada,” she said, nicely. “But my ethnicity is Indian.” That’s the second time you’ve made that mistake, I thought. Ethnicity, not “Whereyizfrom?” That’s West Philly speaking.
“You must be Bob,” she went on.
“Yup,” I said.
“You wrote these?”
“Wrote and published.”
She wanted a SCHIZ and an IWKYA. She didn’t have cash and I couldn’t get Square to work, so I offered to let her take them and drop the money off with the barrista. She said she’d meet me the next time I was at the café and buy the books then – and she did.
She was about the most excited customer I have run into since I started this business.
China, India…
Growing up, two Puerto Rican-born brothers came into my elementary school. In junior high, the nephew of a Central American dictator showed up for a year. (He and I had a fist fight. Not on political grounds.) In high school, we had exchange students from Germany.
I like the world better now.
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.