[i]
☼ ○ ▬
In the dining room of 1435. Everyone is gathered around the big sturdy wooden table. Kevin, in his typical rambunctious attitude, manages to break the table causing it to topple over everyone. It doesn't seem to cause any serious injury but Ana could've been hurt real bad if things had gone a different way. Ana, Kevin, and I migrate outside. I scold him, "I don't even care about the table so much but dude..."
He suddenly realizes how much of a danger it was to Ana, "I know! I know!" and then begins to apologize over the top.
As I push him aside I interject, "I don't even care, Kevin. Just...just go away." I keep pushing him towards the front door and shove him inside. "Really, dude, just go away!"
After tending to Ana for a few minutes I march inside the house where everyone is laughing off the incident and having a good time. I walk right up to Kevin who is sitting by the piano with his clowny face. I point my finger at him and say, "You are the source of all the trouble in my life. Besides relationship issues you're the reason for all my trouble."
The whole room is quiet. I know they'll be cracking jokes about what I said later. I start to leave but change my mind a little as I feel I reacted a little brashly, "Actually, that's not necessarily entirely true. Cause you're my friend, too." I don't even know what to say anymore. I just leave.
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Waking up at 11 a.m.
Blueberry Bagel with Vegan Cream Cheese. Orange Juice. Vitamin C (500 mg).
All day shift at China Wok.
Toasted Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Trail Mix. Honey Green Tea.
It's slow for business.
My car won't start a few times during my deliveries. Thank God for good Samaritans.
Pumpkin Streusel Muffin.
After 8 o'clock it slows down dramatically. Cecily and the girls are eating dinner at another table. Eggs, tomatoes, and rice are prepared. I watch Cecily spoon-feed Eileen somewhat forcefully. She has an on-going eating problem where it takes hours for her to eat one meal. Her parents think that pushing food into her mouth is going to somehow train her to enjoy eating. It's only inevitable that she will throw it up soon after, which is exactly what she does. She was left alone. I catch her sitting with her hands cupped over her mouth, which is gushing out an egg-tomato-rice mush – her eyes wide open with embarrassment. I have nothing but pity. Her sister cries out to the family in the back. Ming, the uncle and other cook, just laughs. Cecily, the mom, comes running with scolding remarks. Janice, her one-year-younger sister, sits down next to me while Eileen cleans herself in the bathroom. She explains to me in her limited English that Eileen has three problems, not doing homework (bad grades), not eating properly, and her style of walk apparently is baby-like. I just don't get it. I just don't. I try to explain to Janice that patience is important and that she needs special help and understanding.
Later on, Elliott and Ana show up after 9. No more deliveries. I share Vegetable Moo Shu with them.
Off work. Ana helps me drop my car off at the shop overnight and then we head to Tapped across the street from the house for Pinball Locomotive's final show before Anthony moves to New York. As expected it's like a little reunion: Kofi's here from NY, our old nanny/roommate is here, Tristan's here from Europe, etc. Besides the lack of dancing and audience participation it's a great Pinball performance. Richie stands like a statue with a strange shifty smile on his face plucking the guitar; some of us wonder if he's even conscious. Kevin's doing his best rock violin and hollering as needed. Rusty wanders valiantly on the bass. Chris keeps the rhythm steady. And Anthony leads the band on charismatically with melodic poetry. They've always kept catharsis as the main ingredient to their sound. Slightly out of tune instruments and traveling notes only feed the rock n roll train. There's a certain amount of sloppiness that comes across as genuine. At the heart of Pinball Locomotive is heart. Meanwhile the Red Sox just won the World Series on the television.
Before the last song Anthony gives a brief speech about finding magic inside of you, "There's a magic. And when it goes you gotta be that magic."
Afterwards, most of us reconvene at Rick's Café. I have a cup (or rather multiple cups) of Coffee and a Biscuit. A big group of people already has possession of the combining tables so we have to revert to sharing booths next to one another for our group of nine. Someone sets a ten-minute timer for a game of musical booths.
James: "So I was watching a Tom & Jerry the other day..."
Tristan interrupts, "What? Did you notice a plot hole?"
It's clever conversations such as this that fuel our meeting at Rick's.
Back home.
Settling in with Ana.
[i] All images by me.
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