Story Submitted by Catherine B.<\/p>\n
\n
CHICAGO<\/span><\/b> ANGEL<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n Holidays were coming up and, for the first time I had no plans. All my regular travelling friends were busy. So I called a neighbour who ran a travel agency and asked if he had any good travel deals going. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll go anywhere,” I told him, \u201cas long as it\u2019s warm and far from home.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll get back to you,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n That evening he phoned back.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have good news and bad news,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the good news?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI can get you a flight to Chicago for a tenner!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Wow, I thought, Chicago! <\/span><\/p>\n I had been in the U.S. before, in New York. My Aunt Mary Jo lived there. She had lived there since she was a teenager and had become more New Yorker than the New Yorkers themselves. She\u2019d greeted me with the immortal words.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGee I didn\u2019t expect anyone well dressed.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n She then went on to explain to me what an elevator was and to demonstrate how to press the buttons. On the street she showed me how to hail a cab and explained that you could pay the driver and he\u2019d take you anywhere you wanted to go. Over dinner she explained the wonders of the salt cellar and informed me that it had been invented by New Yorkers to save time! She ended my visit by telling me that New York was the only city in the entire Universe worth visiting, and warned me never to go to Chicago as it was, \u201ca dump in the boondocks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So\u2026 I was definitely going to Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the bad news,\u201d I asked my travel agent neighbour.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe flight leaves at 9 in the morning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t care. I was going.<\/span><\/p>\n It was only when I was on the plane, looking down at the Atlantic Ocean that I began to wonder what I\u2019d do when I got to Chicago and where I would stay. I had a cousin living there, but I didn\u2019t think I could just phone from the airport and invite myself to his house, especially as I had only met him once before when I was a child. But I wasn\u2019t concerned, I was well used to basic travel. I never had enough money for flights and hotels but I\u2019d travelled all over Europe, hitchhiking, sleeping under haystacks, camping or staying in Youth Hostels. I knew they didn\u2019t have Youth Hostels in the U.S but they did have the Y.W.C.A so I decided that I\u2019d stay there.<\/span><\/p>\n We landed in Chicago in the late afternoon, I took a bus into the city, found my way to the Y.W.C.A. and booked in. And you know how it is after a long flight, you don\u2019t know whether you want to stand up or sit down. But I knew that I needed some air and maybe something to eat so I went out.<\/span><\/p>\n As I walked down the street I noticed that all the<\/span> shops had protective grills on the windows and there were a lot of pawn shops and tattoo parlours and neon signs saying \u201cGirls Girls Girls\u201d with arrows pointing to dubious doorways. I reckoned that I wasn\u2019t in the fanciest part of town. But I wasn\u2019t worried, after all I\u2019d hitched-hiked from Istanbul to Dublin. Next thing I saw this little black girl no more than 7 or 8 sitting on a stoop. She had tiny plaits all over her head tied with tiny pink bows and she wore a faded pink dress. As I approached she stood in in front of me, hands on her hips blocking my way. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere are you from Ma\u2019am?\u201d she demanded.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m from Dublin, Ireland.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell I reckon you ain\u2019t from hereabouts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI only arrived in Chicago this evening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere you lookin\u2019 to go?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell I thought I might get something to eat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is no place for a nice white lady like you to be walkin\u2019 around Ma\u2019am\u2026 this is a baaaad part of town.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I felt a small palpitation\u2026maybe I wasn\u2019t as safe as I thought. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019ll make sure you\u2019re safe.\u201d She said and she took me by the hand and led me down the street.<\/span><\/p>\n She brought me to a down-at-heel diner and marched me up to the counter. \u201cHarry,\u201d she said to the waiter. \u201cI look after this lady. She\u2019s just arrived in Chicago. And if any of them Bean Jumper gang come in, don\u2019t let them near her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes Ma\u2019am,\u201d said Harry.<\/span><\/p>\n And off she went. <\/span><\/p>\n Aaaaw! Isn\u2019t that sweet, I thought and didn\u2019t expect to see her again. I ordered a burger and fries. None of the Bean Jumper gang came in but, as I finished my coffee, I realised that now it was dark outside. And, whatever about feeling safe in daylight, I wasn\u2019t so sure I felt safe in the dark in this \u201cbaaad\u201d part of town. <\/span><\/p>\n I was gathering my courage to leave when the little girl burst in the door. \u201cReady Ma\u2019aam?\u201d she asked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cReady.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And she took my hand once again and walked me back down the street greeting the several shady looking characters we passed by name. She led me up the steps of the Y.W.C.A. and<\/span> said goodbye at the door. Then she ran down the steps, off up the street and into the night.<\/span><\/p>\n And I didn\u2019t even know her name! <\/span><\/p>\n But since then I always think of her as the Angel of Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story Submitted by Catherine B. CHICAGO ANGEL Holidays were coming up and, for the first time I had no plans. All my regular travelling friends were busy. So I called a neighbour who ran a travel agency and asked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kind-hearted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/smallworldstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}