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](https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom) for Ives's own telling.*

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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

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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.

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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.

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*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.*

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