As If From A Dream

They came to my neighborhood.  That was kind.  I’ve become facile at sending the directional applet for the Starbucks in my local mall.  It’s Saturday morning.  A basketball camp is on.  Theirs a twenty-something Chinese guy in shorts yelling at some young boys.  There is no way to walk past this basketball camp and so I walk around through some clothing racks to circle back towards the Starbucks.  My guests are all standing round.  There aren’t enough seats, so we go to a Paris Café next door. 

One knows Egypt, one knows Angola, and another knows Ethiopia.  The person who should be leading this discussion fro ours side isn’t around.  I do my best to weave things towards areas I like to discuss and push this towards driving towards something actionable.  They’re all gracious and interested and it proceeds warmly.  By the end we are sharing information on our families.

The twelve O’clock lunch got pushed back for an hour.  My niece was off line taking a test to get into a recruitment opportunity. We would meet at her dad’s place in another mall, about a twenty-minute bike ride from here.  I pedal along with my phone pinched up to my ear by my shoulder. The call has no logical end, xo I end it as I pull up.  I remember, as if from a dream, one or two years ago, you dart down the escalator next to the Starbucks and spin through the cafeteria place they have below, cut towards the supermarket and exit near the fish restaurant, but one way and then the other way are both blocked and I must return up the escalator and think things over. 

Into another entrance and the shoe department looks familiar.  And there, is another escalator and as we descend a young spirited woman is busking my destination with gusto.  Walking up, she was distracted by someone who’d yelled out “Mei Nu” I realize that she is indeed my sister-in-law. Back to the baojian room we always head to.  One huge fish and then another is laid out on a pan before us.  Delicious, spicy, it is Shandong style so that when my younger brother raises his glad I must raise mine and and the same is true for me, if if I’m just taking a sip.

Saturday, 11/09/19