November 15

"Izzy, you'll never guess who I saw on the train... sitting right in front of me".

"Who?"

"Christopher Stevens".

"Really? I thought he died".

"But I decided not to talk to him."

"Didn't he live in Florida? Awe why not?"

"I wasn't in the mood. I would have to go up to him and say 'excuse me, aren't you Chris Stevens', and he would respond 'and you are?' and I wasn't in the mood".

"Wow, I thought he was dead", Izzy sat in her seat for a moment reflecting on her sister's siting. She looked over at her father. "Pop! You want some bread? Quieres pan?"

From the other room: "Hey Gail, guess who I ran into".

"Who?"

"You ever shop at Shop Rite?"

"Yeah sometimes, for deli sandwiches".

"Frank Azzilo"

"Really?"

"He's a big guy"

"Yeah, I thought he was in Florida".

"No, he's working at Shop Rite".

"I was telling Izzy that I saw Chris Stevens on the train to work the other day..."

"Oh god, remember his brother... man he had a fat ass".

"Ashley, your mother's mouth spews poison."

"What?"

"Poison! Izzy, ask Talia about Tommy Stevens".

"Why? Have you seen him?"

"Oh my god!" Talia interjected, "He's fat and nasty".

"But I thought he had that stomach thing", Izzy sipped on her coffee watching her father carefully chew and re- chew his bread.

"Well he gained it all back... and he's disgusting!" Talia snapped.

"Pop, you want to go into the other room?"A younger cousin appeared next to the table with Grandma close at hand. They were determined to move Pop from where he was wedged in between daughters, into the living room where the younger cousins would have the opportunity to sit and stare at their aging grandfather.

There were a couple new players to the family gathering as could be expected now that the older cousins were in their mid-twenties. Talia had brought with her a new boyfriend, Gail liked to joke that he was into yoga. And there was a neighbor whose bottle of beer was never empty. She clutched it tightly, the beer wore a Yankee cozy. Pop did not get along with light skinned folk these days and so she stayed mostly in the kitchen with a low fitted leopard print shirt. The cougar watched and tried to listen in to the other conversations but the women spoke too quickly and sometimes quit English altogether which made it impossible to know for certain who they were speaking of.

Pop was slowly wheeled into the other room. All other conversation stopped. Mostly, the daughters just reminisced when they were together which drove their husbands crazy. They had all heard the stories repeatedly through the years. Finally, the chatter started up again.

"Jeff!" Gail shouted from the table, she would not move from this spot until her husband told her it was time to go home.

"What?!" He shouted back having just learned his brother had tickets to the game the next evening.

"Remember when you used to make me peanut butter jelly sandwiches?" Jeff and Gail laughed heartily at that.