Channel Esther: Tell Me Anything

by Esther Cohen TELL ME ANYTHING Some people I am one of them want to know everything even when it is absolutely none of my business want to know why tea party woman across the street we only said hello once or twice she said a weather sentence hot or cold was more or less it I want to know why she left her husband about whom I know absolutely nothing his name is George he does something with trucks. Some people why are we like this I was born listening to Julia C. Steele my next door neighbor in the small factory town where I grew up she was a librarian she was having an affair with a married woman this was a long time ago and they seemed happy I didn’t know what an affair was But I knew they seemed happy married woman Was a fifth grade teacher my father went to grammar school with her and when I told him what was happening how did I even know he said Don’t Be Crazy went back to reading The New York Times which he didn’t think was crazy at all. One day a few years later Julia C. Steele ran away With the fifth grade teacher actually got in a car and drove away they didn’t say goodbye they didn’t come back and my father a kind man a serious man I loved my father said to me because I was sitting on the porch I knew they were leaving wanted to see them go why are they leaving he said because they love one another I told him. He was an Un huh kind of man So that’s what he said. Esther Cohen is a contributing writer to Jewish Currents and works with the magazine as arts and public events consultant. Her books include Book Doctor, a novel, and Unseen America: Photos and Stories by Workers, among others.