TOO YOUNG FOR YIDDISH

So many books. Had Zayde really read them all? Each with its own ideas and mysteries. Each with its own secret world. Aaron opened a drawer to take a closer look. He lifted out one book and then another. But he could not read a single word. They were all written in a language he did not understand.

That summer the Brooklyn Dodgers won the pennant. Aaron wanted to be a pitcher, just like Sandy Koufax, his favorite player. He loved to talk to Zayde about ERA’s and RBI’s and the difference between a spitball and a slider.

There, spilling out of bags and trashbins, heaped on the curb across from Aaron’s car, lay all  Zayde’s precious books. Whole worlds piled high like worthless rags.