The Gift
(Tarek Marroushi)
There was a bus that was bumping along a back road in the South. In one seat a
wispy old man sat holding a bunch of fresh flowers. Across the aisle was a young
girl whose eyes came back again and again to the man's flowers.
The time came for the old man to get off. Impulsively he thrust the flowers into
the girl's lap. "I can see you love the flowers, he explained, "and I think my
wife would like for you to have them. I'll tell her I gave them to you."
The girl accepted the flowers, then watched the old man get off the bus and walk
through the gate of a small cemetery.