Hmm…

Eva was thinking out loud

She was stunned by the headlines, GEORGE GERSHWIN WAS DEAD.

She pondered and she thought out loud.

I was fooled by his gusto and looks

And he picked me to sing to right out of the crowd.

I was completely hoodwinked and believed it “HE.”

Gershwin was a hero of mine

But singing songs at Woolworths?

After all of his fame?  After all of this time?

Eva wanted to thump herself a’top of her head!

How could she be so stupid?

Thought she’d be smarter than this!

Maybe not quite cut out for the stage, not well suited!

For she’d come to New York seeking the stage,

Wishing to fulfill her passions.

Just then someone brushed by her.

“No!” she screamed crestfallen and ashen.

For a purse snatcher cleverly caught up her bag

He was halfway down the block.

She began to run to catch him

Careening right into a street beat cop.

There at the corner on the cop’s right side,

A young boy with her purse in his hand.

Eva was caught up on his left

The Irish cop started in with demands.

“We understand what the b’y’d be doing.’

But Miss I gotta be knowin’

Yer lookin’ like an urchin of the streets

Wit a tattered dress like dis… some out growin!’ “

Neither spoke out, they both looked quite grim.

So the cop went on to say,

“The cat got yer tongue? We’ll see to it,

‘*Round the corner to the station wit me today.”

It was a quick march as Paddy just said,

The kid had some ‘splain’ to do.

The torn dress part of his crime?

“No!” she piped up, “I was just feeling blue.”

“I was taking a short cut home,” she said,

“Down the alley behind Woolworths store,

Thinking of the death of George Gershwin,

How my hero was gone…forevermore.

“I came to New York to be up on the stage,”

They went through her purse then and there.

“His success always gave me hope,

I tripped and ripped, my dress left me bare.”

Paddy’s eyes lit up with kindness and trust,

They hadn’t gone through her dress pocket,

For there they would have found,

Her stolen goods: The bracelet locket!

“I’ll see to it yuh git home safe,”

They took the boy away,

Paddy offered her his arm,

‘Wit me, yuh won’t be such a display.

A couple of blocks, to the “Y” her home

Paddy helped her feel quite free,

She sat at the piano in the parlor

Playing, “You Can’t Take That Away From Me.”

To be continued…

By Flo Lawrence

I wonder what will happen now?

I