HALF AN EAR

So the conversation went almost nowhere. I mentioned that place down from Broadway on Stockton that used to sell roast meat. "Sold meat?" Roast meat. "Meat?" Meat. Roast meat. "On Broadway?" No, on Stockton near Broadway. "The corner of Stockton and Broadway?" Not on the corner. "At Pacific?" No. On Stockton. It was there for a long time. "Meat?" Roast meat. "Oh." Well, it looks like they're doing something with that space. "On Broadway?"
It was not on Broadway, but on Stockton Street.

And to further clarify, I mentioned that they had sold roast meat.

I am certain, fairly certain, 100% sure in fact, that he hadn't a clue what I was on about. In any case, something may be going into that place soon. I had earlier mentioned to Robert that Dai Lee is on vacation again. They are just around the corner from the bakery where we were. He had agreed with Russ five weeks ago that it was too tightly packed in there.
So I knew he was familiar with the place. I also knew that he had shopped there.
He also was quite clueless.

After that I got to hear about KFC on the mainland, a golf course with lockers, a very popular coffee shop chain bankrupt bought out and expanded, and a provincial city half an hour away from Guangzhou. Plus the vegetable markets at an intersection in the Financial District before the war, and all about the hot weather on Monday and Tuesday.

With that latter I agreed. I had been here. I knew.

Mentally I noted that one of the two ninety year olds was wearing the same number of layers as he had been when it was over eighty degrees two days earlier when I met him on the bus. It was mid to high fifties today, and he was still overdressed.

As conversations went, it was a dumpster fire. It was the first time in several hours that I had spoken English. Maybe I was out of practice. That would explain why it was so difficult.

Also, I was watching the tyke at the corner table with her daddy. She's probably close to five years old now, and just like two years ago she's calm, not loud, and very very small. I stress that latter characteristic, because there had also been a white infant of the same age and possibly twice that size in the place, looking at the displays. Had I been a pastry I should have been terrified. "Oh lawd, she's gonna eat us all!" "Bun away, bun away!"



Anyhow, I enjoyed talking with the two gentlemen, as I do everyweek. It's a different take on life, and frequently references things I am familair with, but from a different vantage point.



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