Arnon Grunberg

Last day

Why are these people dead?

This is going to be my last day in New York for more than a month.
As every morning I walked with my godson to Chez Laurence around the corner where I bought cappuccino, OJ and croissants.
On the counter at Chez Laurence the owner has placed a tiny statuette of a few ghosts, I guess for Halloween already.
My godson is intrigued by these ghosts – I explained him (for the lack of a better explanation) that ghosts are dead people. But he keeps asking: “Why are these people dead?” My answer is always the same: "First we are going to eat a croissant."