Lovely and quiet

Last Sunday….

“It’s muggy,” I say. It is muggy, the afternoon an odd alternating of sunshine and quick, hard bursts of rain, the dark gray clouds opening up and letting down an absolute soaking. Then, quickly-quickly, more sun. It’s sunny now, but uncomfortably humid, and pools of warm water collect on the sidewalk where I stand. I am standing in front of a Kosher pizza restaurant near a parking meter where my car is parked. A white van is half-double parked near my car, side-door opened, adults sheparding out multiple children. One of the boys, I’m guessing eight or nine years old, and wearing a yarmulke, is hanging onto the parking meter one over from mine, peering around it, staring at me, curious. I smile at him and he smiles back at me, a wide-eyed smile of complete and utter sweetness. A heartbreaker, that kid.

A few moments later, parking satisfactorily taken care of, my parents and I go to a Devon St. chaat shop (my parents are always visiting and I’m not complaining) where we eat samosa chaat, idly, chole bhatura and chum chums. The chum chums are a little hard, a little dry, and also teeth-achingly sweet. Although we all complained about the dryness of the dessert, we still ate every last bit of the the coconut covered chum chums; three chums chums, one for each person and each sweet sitting in a white paper, the kind you might use for a small cupcake. Lovely quiet day.