Motshan and I used to frequent the deli when we were kids, riding our bikes the few blocks to get a sandwich and escape our family for an hour. The owners had left since then, and it was weird to not hear the old owner, Tony, shouting from the back room.
“Scarlet?”
I turned back to face him. Had he been talking to me?
“Sorry, I got lost in memories.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, looking around the store as well. “That’s been happening to me a lot since I came back.”
After a moment of silence between us, I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.
“This world we live in is fucked-up, Motshan. And if anyone can understand my father fucking things up…it’s me. I regret that we lost so many men, and I can’t help but feel like all of this is my fault because I ran. But I’d rather focus on how we are going to fix it, instead of dwelling on what went wrong.”
“Well, I think I have an idea of how we can do that.”
“Alright then,” I said, leaning back to get the attention of a waitress. She smiled and nodded, letting me know she was on her way. “I’m all ears.”