The Book on the Trolley

A retelling based on Portals to Freedom by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937). The narrative is retold in our own words; the line in quotation marks is verbatim from the book. Read the full text for Ives's own telling.

It was an ordinary trolley ride — the long, rattling hour and a half out to Newark — and Howard Colby Ives was passing it the way he loved to, with a book open in his hands. The book was Some Answered Questions, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's patient explanations of the deep things of the spirit.

A young woman had taken the seat beside him. Ives became aware, after a while, of her eyes drifting to his page — and lingering there, with a quiet, unmistakable interest. So he did a small, kind thing: without a word, he tilted the book a little toward her, making room for her eyes beside his own.

And so the two of them rode all the way to Newark, strangers sharing a single book in silence, reading the same lines at the same time as the city slid past the windows. Ives did not lecture her or interrupt; he simply let the words do their own gentle work, page after page, mile after mile.

When at last the trolley reached Newark and it was time to part, the young woman turned to him. Whatever had been growing in her over that hour and a half rose to the surface in a single question:

I think that is the most wonderful book I ever saw. Won't you tell me, please, who is the author?

Ives told her — about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and about the talk He was to give that very Sunday at the Brotherhood Church. And on Sunday, there she was, in the congregation, having followed the thread that a shared book on a streetcar had placed in her hand.

It is one of the smallest acts of teaching imaginable: a man simply turning his book a few inches so a stranger could see. But it is a true picture of how hearts are often reached — not by argument or pressure, but by an open page, a little room made beside us, and the trust that beauty, once glimpsed, knows how to call a soul onward.

This account is retold for the Bahai Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted line is verbatim from Portals to Freedom (Howard Colby Ives, George Ronald, 1937). See the source for Ives's complete telling.

Ives, H. C.. (1937). *Portals to Freedom*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom