Contributor: Jerry Guarino
- -
“I’d
like the corned beef hash, please,” said Tony.
“What
kind of toast?” said the slightly rotund waiter with the white
apron.
“Wheat,
please.”
“Eggs,
over easy?”
“Yes,
that’s fine.”
“What
kind of juice?”
“Cranberry.
No, make that orange.”
“I can
bring you one of each. Coffee?”
“No,
black tea with milk and sugar.”
“And for
you, ma’am?”
“Just a
bagel and cream cheese with coffee, thank you.”
“Very
good, ma’am.” The waiter wrote down the order, nodded and
slipped away.
Tony
and Barbara were seated at a table in front of the delicatessen.
They had a great view of Times Square, already bustling with people
by 8am. “See that large glass booth over there, Barbara. That’s
where you get the discount tickets for Broadway shows.”
“Oooh.
There aren’t any people there yet. When does it open?”
Tony
tapped on his phone for the answer. “Eleven o’clock. After
breakfast we can walk around and look at the theaters to decide what
we want to see, then come back to get the tickets for a matinee, or
we can go to an 8pm show.”
“Or
both” said Barbara, smiling as she squeezed Tony’s hand. It was
her first trip to the city. Tony grew up here, so he was the tour
guide for this vacation.
“Well,
it’s a good thing these tickets are discounted. Prices have really
soared since I lived here.”
“It’s
been thirty years, dear. That’s not surprising.”
The waiter
returned with Barbara’s oversized bagel and generous block of cream
cheese and placed two small plastic glasses of orange and cranberry
juice next to Tony, along with an extra glass. “In case you want
to mix them,” said the waiter.
“Thanks,
he does that at home,” said Barbara.
Tony
could already smell the corned beef, carried by another waiter,
prepping him for the taste to come.
He set
down a huge plate of corned beef, hash brown potatoes, three over
easy eggs and two slices of wheat toast in front of Tony. “Now
that’s what I call corned beef hash,” he said.
“You
better save me a bite,” said Barbara.
“There’s
plenty, you can have as much as you like.” Tony pushed aside some
hash browns to make room for ketchup.
“When I
saw that this was $19.95, I almost didn’t get it, but look how much
food there is.”
“Look at
the size of this bagel and there’s enough cream cheese here for a
party.”
“I told
you a New York delicatessen was the place for breakfast. You
couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Tony
shared his corned beef with his wife and she helped him finish the
hash browns and one of the eggs.
The waiter
waited the appropriate amount of time, then returned to check in on
the couple. “How is everything?”
“Wonderful,”
said Tony. “So much to eat and cooked to perfection.”
“I’m
glad to hear it. I’ll come back in a while to take your picture if
you like.”
“They
really know how to treat tourists, don’t they dear?” said
Barbara.
“I think
they know how to get a good tip sweetheart.”
Tony and
Barbara ate leisurely, not rushed by a crowd waiting for a table.
Tony opened up his iPad. “They even have Wi-Fi! We can look up
the shows right here.”
“Are you
ready for that picture?” said the waiter.
“That
would be lovely, thank you,” said Barbara. She handed the camera
to him and leaned toward Tony, smiling.
The waiter
framed the couple in the viewfinder. “Say Big Apple.” Click.
“Let me take two, just to be sure.”
“Big
Apple” Tony and Barbara said in unison.
Barbara
wanted to see a musical, while Tony was in the mood for a regular
play. They decided to each pick one as they had always done in their
marriage, not compromising, but caring for each other’s needs. By
the time they finished eating, they were ready to buy tickets for a
play that afternoon and a musical that night.
“Looks
like we can have a nice dinner out, with the money we saved on
breakfast,” said Barbara.
The waiter
brought over their bill. “Thank you so much for coming. Have a
wonderful day in New York.”
Their
perfect breakfast had come to an end. “Leave a good tip dear.”
“Of
course, they treated us like family. And we’re not even Jewish!”
Then Tony
saw the charges on the receipt. “$19.95 for corned beef hash,
$5.95 for the eggs, $3.95 for toast, $3.95 for the juice (twice!),
$3.95 for the tea, $6.95 for the bagel and $3.95 for Barbara’s
coffee. $62.57 with the tax!”
Barbara’s
smile turned to a pout. “Well, almost perfect. Guess we’ll be
having pizza for dinner.”
Tony and
Barbara paid the bill and left to look at plays for the evening.
They probably wouldn’t be able to afford a fancy dinner now, but
looked forward to seeing a Broadway show. As they walked by the
marquis, all lit up, even at early morning, the Friday morning
commuters were walking out of Starbucks and off to work.
They
walked across the street to look at the prices for Wicked,
the updated musical about The
Wizard of Oz. Orchestra
tickets were $175 each and all the lower priced seats were sold out
for the next week, when they had to be back in California.
“Maybe
the TKTS booth will have them half price?” said Barbara. They
walked over to the booth where they could see the plays providing
discount tickets. At the bottom of the board there was a notice.
Due to popular demand, the
following plays are not discounted at this time: Chicago, Death of a
Salesman, Turn off the Dark and Wicked. Barbara
sighed, the disappointment obvious on her face. Tony tried to think
of how to make it up to her. Maybe a visit to the Empire State
Building or a cruise around the city in one of those boats.
“Excuse
me,” said a man dressed in a white shirt, black pants and jacket
and a black fedora. His hair flowed out of the sides of the fedora,
with curls on each side of his ears. He had a scraggly beard and
horn rimmed eyeglasses.
Barbara
turned to him and smiled. “Yes, hello. Were you talking to us?”
“Forgive
me for listening to you, but am I correct that you wanted to find
tickets for Wicked?”
Because
of the earlier incident at the delicatessen, Tony was reluctant to
bargain with this man. “Well, we had hoped to find affordable
tickets here or at TKTS, but it looks like that isn’t possible.”
“I
have two good tickets. They are for tonight at 8:00pm. Very good
seats, third row orchestra on the aisle.”
Tony
looked at Barbara and she replied. “I’m afraid we couldn’t
afford those, but thank you for offering.”
The
man looked disappointed as well. “You don’t understand, these
are for tonight, after sunset. We are not allowed to attend shows on
the Sabbath. You can have the tickets, no cost.”
Now
Tony and Barbara felt embarrassed, thinking this man was trying to
extort them. Barbara gave the man a hug and shed a small tear. “Oh
thank you. This means a lot to us.”
“Simcha”
said the man, blessing the couple. Then he walked away, nodding and
reciting morning prayers.
“Like
family” said Barbara.
“Like
family” replied Tony.
- - -
Jerry Guarino’s short stories have been published by dozens of magazines in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain. His latest book, "50 Italian Pastries", is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook. Please visit his website at http://cafestories.net
