Tuesday, December 1st, 2020

A bicycle darts past me as I wait for a traffic light across from the city square. It zooms ahead, not paying attention to much. A dog crosses into its path. The bicycle rolls over the dog’s leash, inches from it. The dog flops onto its side. The bicycle just keeps going. The dog gets up. It doesn’t look pleased. I cross the street and step into the pizza shop. The worker asks me what I would like. I point to the one remaining slice of Sicilian pizza. She tries to scoop it up on the large pizza peel. That’s the English name for the tool they use, somewhere between a spatula and a shovel. I don’t know the word at the time, but look it up later to write this. The pizza keeps sliding off the peel. The other worker turns and takes the peel’s handle. He gives it a quick flip. The slice slides forward, seated securely. The woman with the dog comes in. A little girl is with her. The girl disappears almost immediately. She emerges near the ovens on the other side, having walked under the piled-up tables that keep customers out of that area. The woman yells at her. The girl grumpily stomps back under the tables to our side. The woman wants four slices. The other worker tells her they add up to the same price as a large pizza. He uses the English word “large.” She doesn’t like that. “But they’re slices!” Yes, but they add up to a full large pizza. He spins the slices around on the metal counter and forms them into a perfect circle. The woman doesn’t like the price, but she gets them. The worker who took my order tries to scoop my slice out of the oven. She fails. The other worker shows her, again, how to flip it onto the peel. She rings up my pizza and a soda but gets confused at the register. The other worker shows her how it works. I take the pizza and soda and try to leave. The girl is leaning up against my leg. The dog has wandered between us and wrapped its leash around my ankles. I gradually extricate myself without dropping anything. I look down at the girl and smile. She smiles back. The woman doesn’t notice. I carry everything over to a chess table, take off my mask, and eat.