Samuel Osei had driven a city bus for thirty years, and he knew every street by heart. But he could not read well, and nobody knew his secret. When people gave him a note, he said, "I forgot my glasses. Can you read it for me?"
One morning a letter came from his granddaughter Grace, who was nine and lived in another city. Samuel put the letter in his jacket pocket, and he carried it for thirty-one days. At red lights he took it out and looked at it, and then he put it back.
On the thirty-first day he saw a poster at the bus depot: "Free evening reading class. Tuesdays at seven." He drove past the school three times. The fourth time, he went in. The teacher, Ms. Lindqvist, smiled. "Everyone here started with the first letter," she said.
After four months Samuel read the letter aloud in his kitchen, slowly: "Dear Grandpa, I lost a tooth. When are you coming? I will show you. Love, Grace." He read it three times. Then he wrote his answer: "Dear Grace, I am coming on Saturday. I have something to show you too."
