Deli Style – Part One

Deli Style – Part One
©2009 Wanza Leftwich


David Warner hit the snooze button for the fourth time before the love of his life Alaya slapped him on the face. She’s a mere three years old, but understands beyond her years, David thought as he moved the miniature hand from his mouth. She did not want her sleep cut short and neither did David.

David smiled at little Alaya dressed in Superwoman pajamas and a purple silk scarf. She was everything and nothing at all like her mother. No tears today, David reminded himself. In this life there are disappointments and joys. This life happened to be both since Alaya’s birth in September nearly three and half years ago.

“Daddy…” Alaya turned upside down on the pillow.

“Mornin’ baby,” David kissed her on the cheek and headed for the shower.

The hot steam lurked into the hallway. He always left the door open just in case Alaya woke up.

David scurried throughout the one bedroom apartment humming a hymn. He grabbed a pair of black jeans, a starched white-collared shirt and his black Timberlands. He sprayed a few whisks of his watered down cologne and headed for the door.

With keys in hand and Alaya smothered in her favorite purple Barney blanket, he locked his apartment door and walked to the other end of the hallway.

“I wish you would leave her here at night,” Ms. Natalie, in apartment 17A brushed the cold out of her eyes. “It’s bad enough I got to wake up at all.” She took Alaya and slammed the door.

David cringed. He hated to leave Alaya at all, especially overnight with Ms. Natalie’s son who was just released from prison. But what could he do? They would not accept her at the neighborhood daycare because he didn’t receive public assistance. And he couldn’t get public assistance because he made more the minimum allotted for a household of two.

David barely had enough money to pay the controlled rent. Ms. Natalie was only sixty dollars a week. Even that depleted his budget to tithes, offering, food, Pampers, carfare and an occasional outfit for him or Alaya.

David shook his head, sighed and pushed the stairway door open. Two more weeks and the elevator would be fixed. Only sixteen more flights to go.

The morning’s air stifled David’s breathing. Down the hill and around the corner, he ran down the steps into the subway.

David slid his weekly Metrocard through the turnstile and rushed on to the awaiting train. He pulled out a slim line Bible from his inside jacket pocket and sat on the wooden bench. He read Proverbs three and verse four.

“So shalt thou found favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man,” David mumbled as he fell asleep.

He woke up before the doors closed at his destination.
~~~

Esther Ann Dowdry darted for the escaping number four train at the Atlantic Avenue Station. With one shove in her ribcage, Esther almost made it to the last empty seat. Esther sucked her teeth and settled for the cliffhanger above.

Thank God for Dove deodorant.

A few minutes later, the train came to a screeching halt in the tunnel. “Not again,” Esther whispered.

“Attention, all passengers,” the conductor announced. “Please be patient. We should be moving shortly.”

“I may as well do something constructive.” Esther maneuvered her stance and retrieved an anatomy book from her bag. To her dismay, loose notebook paper, two pens and a handful of index cards fell to the floor.

“Jesus,” Esther prayed and released the passenger handle to pick up her schoolwork, until her whiskey filled neighbor gagged and vomited on her midterm study notes.

Esther felt a tear emerge from her left eye as nearby passengers began to scramble for cover. The stench cleared one third of the subway car, pushing passengers into the next car.

“In all things give thanks,” Esther remembered last night’s sermon. “Thank God for a seat.” She sat three seats away from the old man that now sat with his feet firmly planted in the fruit of his labor.

Wanza Leftwich, The Gospel Writer, is freelance writer, speaker and avid blogger. She loves to write Urban Christian Fiction and Bible Study courses. She resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband Arthur and daughters Symphony and Lyric.