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One

September

Rafe

It had been two hours since I blew out twenty candles on the cake Ma made for me, but my ass was still parked in a chair at Restaurante Tipico

It was always hard for et away from the Dominican joint that my extended family ran I needed to be on a train headed back to Harkness College But here I was at table seven in the back corner, rolling silverware for the evening rush, the saone," I said to Pablito, my sixteen-year-old cousin "I have seven o’clock dinner reservations If I ht?"

"Yeah, it’s actually her birthday, too"

"No shit?" Pablito grinned as he applied yet another of the self-adhering bands we used to hold the napkin around the knife and fork "So I’ like the fryer You’re getting a nice dinner, a bottle of wine and then" -- he made a lewd hand motion -- "some happy birthday to you"

Jesucristo I was not about to share the details of this evening’s plans with Pablito or anyone else "At least you got an hour’s worth of labor out of et your present," he said, casting an eye on the vintage ivensilver with an art deco design "I knohy your Ma chose that for you"

"Yeah?" I tucked it in ave it to s She’d chosen well, and I’d thanked her

"No place to hide a condorin, because the kid er cousins was a part of ated to add, "You’re not supposed to keep them in your wallet, anyway"

"Eh" He shook his head "Like it would matter"

Check please I could not talk about sex with my sixteen-year-old cousin Not today of all days I tossed one last silverware roll onto the pile and stood "Tengo que irme" Gotta run

He returned ood life Don’t think of us, the little people"

I cuffed hioodbye

She wished me a happy birthday, and I thanked her for the cake and the present "Bye I need to go I’ht"