this autumn tempest

lunch was curious today. aoi sushi for edemame, and while i waited for my salted soy beans, i watched the bank employees converge on the tiny little tables with the tiny little tea cups and tiny little rice bowls.

"hi girls!"

"hey, mary! gee, everyone is here today!" - [perhaps because it's the only eatery in the mall that doesn't require an ambulance on stand-by in case of instant heart attack]

"where's linda?"

"i think she's checking her lottery ticket"

a sudden screeching fills the room, like the sounds of a hyena in a leg trap. a woman in her 40s comes rushing through the maze of little japanese tables and raises her arms and fists and waves them like she's marshalling in a zeppelin. "i won ten dollars!" she screams, and everyone turns and smiles and gasps and pats her on the back and all subsides after a few minutes and she disappears again to visit the tiny japanese water closet.

a few minutes later, she returns, composed, silent and takes a seat. she grabs her chopsticks like a true white middle-aged woman and fumbles as she tries to grab a california roll.

and there's a child with his hand up the chute of a 25 cent rubber ball dispenser, and an ancient couple carrying home their safeway bags of bananas and chicken breasts, and there's a leathery-faced, dirty city-worker opening his lunch bag and a tiny, old japanese woman hiding in back of aoi sushi, sipping tea and seeing what i see.

"edemame to go!"

Currently listening: Pinback By Pinback

posted by Courtney at 1:42 p.m.

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