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First published in Little Rose Magazine.

We escaped the famine and landed in New York City expecting God knows what. Papa was determined while Mama held her counsel and my brother, Pete, absorbed everything from advertisements painted across buildings to crowds of unsure eyes and men in the shadows who awaited opportunities to exploit the weak and unsuspecting.
Papa was a big man so anyone would know to approach him with caution. Thus the sole figure who talked with us was a man in a wagon who bargained with Papa to guide us through the clamor and odors of the great city to our new home, a four-story walk-up tenement of two small rooms….

Read the rest here.