New Short Stories from Kimbilio Fellow Amina Gautier

WHY NOT?

Why shouldn’t she agree to dinner? She’s known him ever since she moved to Philadelphia for grad school. For years she saw him at the various service projects for which she volunteered. Year after year she stood beside him at the Salvation Army on Girard Avenue on Thanksgiving Day, scooping spoonfuls of stuffing, greens, and candied yams onto paper plates to serve hot meals to the homeless. For years she ran into him at the Odunde festival and at the Urban League, encountering him at all the places young black professionals frequented for fun, networking, and fellowship. They are non-speaking acquaintances— they share friends in common but have never been introduced nor ever had a conversation.

Read the rest of this story and two others by Amina Gautier on LITERARY MATTERS