Tales By Tom, the podcast on Thomas M. Cagley Sr.’s fiction
continues with the fifth installment of the novella “Even the
Day of My Wedding.”
The story so far . . .
Morris Lasker has told the story of his Holocaust experiences to a
stranger, Robert Karrigan. At the very end of the story,
Robert learns that Morris had met a young girl in the Displaced
Persons camp after the war and that they’d planned to get married
once both were in America. Coming at different times, they
did not meet, through no fault of either. The girl, Dita Hersch,
married in 1949 just as Morris arrived; Morris never married.
Without telling Morris, without even a nod to the incredible odds
against him, Robert decides to try to find Dita somewhere in the
United States. Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, 1985, he runs
a blind ad in 8 small southern New Jersey newspapers where Morris
heard she went after her 1949 marriage. Remarkably, she
responds. Robert follows up with a letter of explanation, once he
knows where she lives, but for three months he hears nothing.
Finally she answers and not reluctantly at all agrees to meet
Robert in the coffee shop at the Cherry Hill Mall Hyatt near
Philadelphia. If the meeting goes well, he thinks, he will tell
Morris when he sees him the next week in New York and see what
happens next. Chapters 10, 11 and 12 includes Dita’s
explanation of what happened when she learned of the ad looking for
her, a remarkable coincidence on a flight from Tokyo that paves the
way to Dita and two brief but telling stories of things lost.
If you are on Facebook come over and friend me at
http://bit.ly/18j52E
I encourage you to contact me as I read this and other stories by
email at talesbytom@gmail.com or by voicemail at 1 206 339
5456.
All rights are reserved on the stories I publish here.
Contact me if you’d like to use or republish anything included in
the podcast.