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- Herausgeber: Gemma Open Door for Literacy
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Serie: The Yellow House Stories
- Sprache: Englisch
Fall brings more changes to the yellow house as Joe and Brita open their home to a new relative. Rashid's mother, Mona, lost her husband in the Syrian civil war, but her dreams for their son keep her going. She arrives in America with not much more than hope. As for creating her own new life? Well, that is not something Mona wants to look at just yet. But this beautiful, sad woman does not go unnoticed! The Yellow House Stories follow daily life on Summer Street, an American neighborhood where cultures meet, challenges emerge, and people learn how to live together.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Alice Savage
Mona
Alice Savage grew up in a theatrical family and began writing plays in the fifth grade. As an English teacher of adult learners, she combines creative writing with a deep awareness of language to illuminate the worlds of immigrants and cultural explorers. She credits her multi-cultural family as inspiration. An author on many course books for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Pearson, and others, Alice has presented widely on the role of drama in language learning. She has published several award-winning one-act plays. Her dramatic fiction shows happens when characters address challenges for which they may or may not be prepared. Alice lives in Houston.
First published by Gemma in 2024.
www.gemmamedia.org
©2024 by Alice Savage
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Printed in the United States of America
978-1-956476-36-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data available.
Cover by Laura Shaw Design
Named after the brightest star in the Northern Crown, Gemma is a nonprofit organization that helps new readers acquire English language literacy skills with relevant, engaging books, eBooks, and audiobooks. Always original, never adapted, these stories introduce adults and young adults to the life-changing power of reading.
Open Door
To mothers around the world
Table of Contents
1. Pancakes 1
2. Money 5
3. The Bank 11
4. Bread 17
5. The Cat 26
6. A Storm 36
7. A Friend 45
8. A Search 50
9. Bad News 57
10. The Hospital 62
11. Sweet Tea 69
12. A Job 76
13. Change 86
14. A New Life 92
1. Pancakes
Morning sun comes through the trees. It shines into an upstairs bedroom window. Mona sits up in bed. Her heart is beating fast, and she looks around in fear. There are white flowers on a table. Her suitcase is on a chair. She is safe.
A photo of her husband is next to the bed. He is wearing a doctor’s coat and standing outside the hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Mona picks up the photo and holds it to her heart. “I miss you,” she says in Arabic.
Then Mona hears her son’s laughter. Rashid is downstairs, and he sounds happy. Mona smiles. Rashid is safe, also.
Mona dresses quickly and goes down to breakfast. Rashid is at the table with Mona’s brother-in-law, Joe. Both of them are tall and thin with thick dark hair. Joe’s American wife, Brita, is in the kitchen. Brita has green eyes and red hair. Brita is wearing exercise clothes and shoes in the house.
“Good morning,” says Brita. She brings Mona a glass of tea. Mona tastes her tea. It is hot and bitter. She sets it down and waits for Brita to offer her sugar. Brita returns with a plate of flat bread, cheese, nuts, and fresh herbs. Brita learned about Syrian breakfasts from her husband Joe, but she forgets the sugar. Mona is still a guest, so she does not ask.
Rashid and Joe are talking about the bus. Rashid takes two buses every day. First, he goes to college. After class, he takes two buses back to the neighborhood. Then Rashid goes to work.
“I am on the bus for three hours,” Rashid says.
“That’s a long time!” Brita comes back. She puts pancakes on the table, and calls her two sons, Kyle, who is five, and Ethan, three, to come for breakfast.
Mona looks at the pancakes. They are not bread, and they are not cake.
“Go ahead,” says Joe, “take one.”
“No, thank you,” she says politely.
“Okay, then I will!” says Rashid. He takes two pancakes. Then he sees his mother watching.
“Don’t be afraid mom. They’re not going to bite you!” Rashid eats his pancake. Then he takes another pancake.
“Yum,” he says.
Mona watches Rashid eat.
The third time Rashid offers, Mona finally nods. He puts a pancake on her plate and pours honey on it. Mona takes a bite. It is sweet, and it tastes good with the strong tea.
“Yum,” she says, and Rashid laughs.
Mona smiles at her son. This is his new life, she thinks. And it is mine also.
2. Money
Joe has a small business on Nineteenth Street. He helps people mail things. Today he is working at home. When he hears voices, he leaves his computer and comes into the kitchen. Mona is with Brita and their son Kyle. They are looking at a big pile of coins on the kitchen table.
“That’s a lot of money!” says Kyle.
“We’re going to take these coins to the bank,” says Brita. She shows him the paper rolls. There is one size for quarters and smaller ones for other coins. “We’ll fill these rolls with coins, and then the bank will take them.”
“Hey, Kyle,” says Joe. “I have a math question for you. How many quarters are there in one dollar?”
Kyle looks at his father, “Everyone knows that dad. Four!”
“Okay, so there are four quarters in a dollar. Now here’s my question: a roll has forty quarters,” says Joe. “So forty quarters makes how many dollars?”
“I don’t know,” says Kyle. He plays with the quarters.
“You can do it, Kyle,” says Joe. You’re a big boy, almost six years old!”
“I don’t want to,” says Kyle.
“Think,” says Joe.
“Ten dollars!” says Mona. “Forty quarters is ten dollars. There are ten dollars in a roll.”
Joe looks at Mona. He wanted Kyle to answer the question. Joe looks at Kyle. “Do you agree?”
“Yes,” says Kyle. “Now can we start? I want to do quarters.”
“Do you want to help, Joe?” asks Brita.
