Connecticut

We had clams in butter- garlic and chicken-wings. He asked if I would have some whiskey and I told him that I was still breast feeding. Later he offered me his bed since it was very late and I didn’t know the place around much so without any reluctance or reserve I decided to stay over. The floor was bare and icy. He said he didn’t like to cover it with rugs or carpets. He set an alarm for 8 am which I didn’t really need. I did not want to ask him where he would sleep. It was a very cold winter that year, especially that night but he insisted I kept my window a little ajar to let out the smoke from the incense sticks which I put out later and even shut the window.

He had already left when I woke up the following morning. There was a white post-it on the mirror, ``Hope you slept fine, avoid the fuss and get some grub outside, the fridge is near empty anyways,’’ and a shopping bag hanging from the door knob. A toothbrush, a black 501, this I had asked for and an ` A line’ dress, very oriental looking which I doubted I would ever wear.

Around mid-October last year, sometime very late in the night I woke up to the smell of fried eggs, not just that, there was something else, something very familiar and frequent, the sounds, more of a feeling I was afraid to have recognized. Halfway down, I went back and slept.