The One + Only Time A Salinger Story Was Read To ME

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The story was

A Perfect Day For Bananafish

and it was read to me aloud

by an adopted cousin

who read it "perfectly"

from start to finish

despite his mother believing

that her son

—born in Mexico—

was a Special Ed student

with serious reading disabilities

 

The date was October 15, 2011

 

We were driving from

Massapequa to Flushing

to honor the 40th anniversary

of my Mother's passing

 

His Mother, 

a Special Ed teacher

for thirty years,

was incapable of realizing

that her son had

an IQ superior

to most of his well-bred

Caucasian Nassau County classmates

but the boy's constant winking

at his adopted Uncle

in the presence

of his parents

was a secret pleasure

I will treasure 

for a lifetime

***

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