When we got off the train, an Italian mafioso approached us.
“Listen, Padre, you’se got a minute to hear my confession?”
The monk smiled. “If there is a chapel, I can hear it. My friend will accompany me.”
I checked my watch. I had two hours before my flight. I followed the monk to the chapel. He asked me to wait outside. The mafia dude talked briefly, then handed the monk something. He left the chapel in tears. “Bless you, father, bless you. God is great.”
“His mercies are greater, my son.”
In the monk’s hand was a ticket to Boston.
“He had a change of heart. He was going to kill his brother-in-law, but his confession changed his mind.”
I was flabbergasted.
“Is Boston warmer than New York?” he asked.
“No, it’s much colder.”
“No matter. Someone will give me a warm coat.” He wandered off into the crowd of hostile New Yorkers.
I gained three hours flying back to California, but I lost seven with all the layovers. Ultimately, it was 10:00 pm when I got in. Oakland shuts down at 10:00, so a lot of people didn’t get their checked luggage. “You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
My father waited on the curb with my new stepmother, Violet. Jessie was conspicuously absent.
“I told her it was for close family only,” Violet said.
We climbed into her beat up Subaru and headed through Oakland to my father’s apartment in Glenview. I thought to myself, “I wonder what I’ll learn on my semester off?” If I knew the answer, I would have caught a plane back to New York that very minute.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Duncan MacLeod was born in Oakland, CA. Many of the things that happened to him in his young adult years happened to Ethan as well. He persevered. During challenging times, we build strength by continuing forward, despite a million little disappointments, setbacks, and disasters. If mental illness has forced you to drop out of an Ivy League school, take heart. There are a thousand more chances to get it right.
ALSO BY DUNCAN MACLEOD:
5150: A Transfer
Half
M3X1(0
A Quarter
Coming soon – Agnes in the Fifth Bardo
Seventh Avenue South Page 15
