I'd forgotten the man walking along beside me until he spoke again. I looked at him, feeling stupid and a bit frustrated. "Look," I said, somewhat sharply, "I don't speak whatever language it is you're speaking!" Two of the shoeshine men looked up and burst out laughing, pointing at the man next to me and guffawing.
"Guess she told you, eh, Smithy?" said one of them, still chuckling.
The other one looked at me and said, "That's jive he's talking!" I frowned, puzzled, and Smithy spoke again in an accent I could understand. "I guess," he said, enunciating exaggeratedly, "I will need to speak very slowly for you."
I blushed. Had he really been speaking English? Had I offended him?
"Excuse me," I said, "I've got to go." I began to walk away.
He caught up with me. "Young lady, I simply asked you if you wanted a guide."
"A guide?" I repeated stupidly.
"I'm guessing this is your first trip to the Big Apple."
"The Big Apple?" I echoed, feeling dumber by the second.
"That's what they call New York City!" he said proudly.
"Why?" I asked.
"Why what?"
"Why do they call it the Big Apple?"
"I don' know why. Nobody ever asked me that. But am I right? You a tourist?"
"Um, well, sort of," I admitted.
"Where you heading?"
"Um, Greenwich Village," I answered, uncomfortable with the questions, but with no idea how to politely walk away. Having been raised in New England, I was taught to be unfailingly respectful to my elders and this man, although he was probably no more than twenty-five, was an elder in my eyes.
"And," he asked in the tone of a man with an ace up his sleeve, "do you know how to get to Greenwich Village?"
I looked away uncomfortably. How did I reconcile the rule to be polite and respectful with the rule not to talk to strangers? This was not a combination of events I'd ever been prepared for. I looked at the floor. "No," I mumbled, "I'm going to ask at the Information booth over there."
The sing-song tone was beginning to reappear in his voice. "You don' have to do that, bay-bee," he said. "I can take you there! Come on," he added, taking my elbow, "Let's go get a cup of coffee before we go." Before I could protest further, he steered me authoritatively towards the entrance to a coffee shop and pushed the door open.
YOU ARE READING
In the Apple
AdventureIts easy to get lost in a big city. An average teenager just moved to the city streets of New York because something very bad happened! But they are all willing to forget it when they see what they are heading for, the big apple. One day she decides...