WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: Babang Luksa 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:03.280 Aol Zone Media. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:11.040 Book club book club book club. That's the new jingle. Hey, 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:13.920 I figure if I set up a bit where I 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.200 use a new jingle every single time I introduced the episode, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.319 then I'll regret it in probably about a month. But 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.799 this is cool Zone Media book Club, which is a 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.560 book club run by cool Zone Media. I'm your host, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.920 Markaret Kiljoy and with me today as my guest is 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:34.560 Mi a long Hello. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.760 Hello, I am booking, I am clubbing, I am pounding 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:40.200 the tables going book club. 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:42.080 This is an exciting moment. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:47.839 Yeah, well, this is a book club kind of in 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.160 some ways it'll have we're still it'll develop as it goes. 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.480 But right now it's a story club where I read 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.720 you a story. I'm going to read me a story, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.560 and Mia, by proxy is you the listener. 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:03.680 And I feel so powerful. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:10.520 I know you represent everyone. Wow, that's wild. That's a 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:15.679 I think that makes you more powerful than most elected officials. 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.280 I have become god. Oh no, someone must kill me now. 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.280 Okay, someone has actually come and killed Mia, so I'm 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.399 gonna have to do most of the rest of this 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.679 on my own. That was a joke, MIAs. 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:32.240 Still yeah, no, I'm not dead yet. 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.119 Unless you're listening to this like seventy years in the future, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:40.399 in which case and we're just talking to you from 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.720 this is okay, whatever, Okay, I'm gonna read a fucking story. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.160 And this is the first week that we are reading 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.840 a story that, you know, we started the book club 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.000 by me reading a novella of mine called The Lama 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.920 Slaughter or The Lion, and then I've been collecting stories 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.560 from different authors that relate to the themes of the 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:02.120 show It could Happen Here, that talk about people working 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.360 together or the world changing due to climate and other crises. 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.400 And I'm really excited about the story that I'm gonna 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.480 read today because I think it I think it kind 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.720 of helps set the tone for a what a slow apocalypse, 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.000 like what we're dealing with is really all about. And 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.799 I think we're all living through times where we're gonna 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:24.799 have to start blurring the lines of what is science 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:26.440 fiction and what is reality? You know. 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:28.240 Yeah, So. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:34.919 This this story is by Nicassio Andres red and it's 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:40.840 called Lebong Lucsa. Salt had crept in while he was away, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.280 and now the freshwater wetlands of Gino's childhood are a marsh, 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.799 brackish and fickle. There is the soccer field where he'd 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.760 stained his knees. It had been a low, dry rise 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.800 of earth bracketed by mud and cord grass, and today 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.640 is impassable, a thicket of cattails and algae, skinned water, 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.600 a humming choir of insects. And here the Jiffy lube 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.240 where Gino got his first job, and a stand of 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.200 trees outside it where Gino smoked his first cigarettes. A 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.120 line of fat old maples that in the summer had 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.880 dropped their seeds in spinning helicopter wings by the whirling hundreds, 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.600 and in the autumn had lit up like match heads, 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.440 screaming into the sky first week of June. Now and 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.800 they're not doing much of anything, their branches almost bare, bark, 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.640 corpse gray from drinking salt water. Around the corner to 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.720 Mifflin Street, past the strip bones of the gas station, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.120 up two blocks to the high tide line of the 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.040 sand bagged steps of the shop, and go the empty 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.960 lot opposite repurposed into a dock for the neighborhood fleet. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.200 Half a dozen rowboats with their oars padlocked, a thwart 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.400 one eight seater bow rider with yellowing upholstery, one jet 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.360 ski and as they come into dock the roofed pontoon 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.480 that Gino caught a ride on, a habitat for humanity 0:03:54.520 --> 0:04:00.240 donation forty Benji, the helmsman, get out of here, you know, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.200 sucking his teeth. We got a problem, naw man nah. 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:06.280 Gino digs out his wallet. 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:07.640 Cash. 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.040 Yeah, I figured y'all get a lot of outages. Benji 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.440 counts through the ones and fives more power outages than power. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:20.080 We on generators, if we on shit, Benji shakes his head. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.240 Is what it is? You need directions? I'm good, Thanks, 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.520 I grew up around here. The boardwalk from the boats 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.039 to dry asphalt is made of wooden shipping pallets, new 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.960 ones stacked on top of old when they've started to 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.320 molder as the mud takes them. Gino slings his bag 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.560 over his shoulder and walks across with his eyes on 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.920 his feet, distrustful of the dark patches where it looks rotted. 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.440 Through the street is a relief, even with sedge and 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.719 woolgrass cutting up through the cracks in the pavement. For 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.440 the first few yards past the water line, the distance 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.560 from the stop and go to his childhood home is 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.360 the length of time it took to eat a bag 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.160 of spicy pork skins and throw the evidence in a 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.640 neighbor's garbage can, so his mom wouldn't know he'd been 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.920 ruining his dinner, but he'd measured it in a teenage 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:10.680 boy's appetite. And the walk seemed quicker now. The street's narrower, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:15.320 the telephone poles shorter, the sky closer, everything more squat, 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.359 and the gritty smell of the marsh clinging on even 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.200 two blocks up the street. Still, it's late in the 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.280 afternoon and the sun on the clouds is starting to blush. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.320 So folks are setting themselves up on front stoops and 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.400 threes and sixes, with cigarettes and beer bottles and babies 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.159 on bouncing knees, their friendly racket sounding to Gino something 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:40.080 like a first language, so familiar, unheard for years. He 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.840 gets a couple nods and throws them back, but nobody 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.679 knows him on sight. He turns the corner on South 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.760 Bosnel Street. The sidewalk is broken in all the same 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.320 spots he didn't know he knew until he sees them again, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.200 and then he knows every fissure and crack, every dog 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.600 pole mortalized in wet cement. No parked cars, a lot 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.000 more boarded updoors and windows than there used to be, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.120 although there had always been some. There were never any 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.200 front yards in the neighborhood, all the basement windows looking 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.560 directly out onto the sidewalk. Now every house on the 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.440 road that still looks occupied as a rain barrel out front, 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.520 and a couple have one of those larger galvanized metal 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:22.240 cisterns that look like fat, little grain silos. There's a 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.279 line of grass growing right down the middle of the 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.479 street s edge, probably a bad sign on what used 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.479 to be high ground. And then inevitably there is number 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.479 twenty seventeen. He's been gone almost twenty years, and it 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:41.040 looks not the same, but like a faded photograph of itself. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.120 Gino doesn't know if it's looked like that for a while, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.160 or if it happened all at once. If a year 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.080 ago when his father died the color drained from the 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:55.359 house's facade, he could still turn around. It's not that 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.560 he hasn't thought about his father's death or how it 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.440 would be to come home and see the place without him, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:02.279 but he's been able to think about it from a 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.719 distance know it without seeing it, and that's worked for 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.599 him overall. But from the bottom of the steps and 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.040 through the screen door, there's his mother's voice telling someone 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.640 to bring out the good plates, the ones for company, 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.640 so much clearer than her voice over the phone, telling 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.440 him she'd understand if he couldn't make the trip, like 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.120 she was forgiving him for disappointing her even before he 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.280 did it. Gino wants very much to be someone who 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.400 doesn't need to be forgiven, so up the stairs he goes. 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.240 Gino was five years old when the bulge of the 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.880 schoolkil river met the fat and trickle of cobs creaked 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.480 to the east, and together they fingered their way west 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.360 through parkways and back yards to touch the gutted Delaware. 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.800 It was then declared that everything south of the Roosevelt 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:48.080 Expressway was officially part of the Greater Chesapeake Floodplain. The 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.239 majority of Philadelphia was under at least six inches of water, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.720 so the entirety of it was legally classified it as inundated. 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.920 The news his folks, every adult he knew, kept track 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.040 of the losses. The city took bids on where to 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.080 relocate the Liberty Bell and crowd funded the removal and 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.320 transport of the arch at the foot of Chinatown, the 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.640 neighborhood threw up barriers around the Pentecostal church on Snyder 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:15.160 Avenue and brought up in replanted mangroves from nurseries on 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:19.000 the Jersey Shore. They were losing more ground than they saved, though, 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.880 for as long as he could remember. When he was eight, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.360 the block half a mile away where his mom grew 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.679 up was evacuated, and his Grandpap moved in with them. 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.920 Slept on the couch. His sharp pressed slacks and red 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:37.560 striped shirts displaced Gino's clothes in the closet. His basketball 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.319 games and bachi club pushed Gino out of the afternoons 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.199 he'd spent with his dad, and his voice, old Philly 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.800 short vowels running up into each other, filtered into every 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.680 room and out the front door onto the stoop every day, 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.079 adding to the to his eulogy for the city. Grief 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.840 was the background static of Gino's childhood, every one else's 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.840 grief for a place he'd never been. Gino's family was 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.640 in West Pasiunk, a little too distant from the heart 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.160 of old Italian Philadelphia to benefit from the touristing nostalgia 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.120 and too black and brown for their one sob story, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.640 among many to generate charitable donations, like for the black 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.040 folks down in king Sessing Up in Kensington. The official 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:19.880 plan was to leave it to rod in the water, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.240 but the less than a mile square from twentieth Street 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.440 to twenty sixth sat on a rise known only to 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.280 the kids who'd biked it, pushing and sweating up one 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.920 way and gliding legs storked out down the other, while 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.080 the rest of the neighborhood went to algae and rot. 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.480 Gino's old block and the couple dozen around it became 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:43.240 an island in the marsh. It was almost lucky a 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.920 mile in any direction. The government offered to buy homeowners 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:47.640 out of their property for less than a quarter of 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.680 how much it would cost them to start over somewhere 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:54.079 further inland. Most people took it because, in the choice 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.360 between an insultingly low offer and nothing at all, they 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.240 figured it was better not to wait around for the 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:04.120 insulting offer to expire. Up in the neighborhood, basements flooded, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.800 tap water went funny, electricity flickered and failed, but no 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.880 buyout offers came and even as everything else changed, the 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.960 old rule still held true. If you didn't get out 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.439 of the neighborhood by the time you were eighteen, then 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:23.000 chances were you were never getting out. Gino left when 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.800 he was eighteen. Gino's older brother, Stevie, got married at eighteen. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.320 Stevie's in his forties now and on the couch this morning, 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:33.880 his knees as high as his chest because his spot 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.199 on the far corner has sagged under the years he's 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:40.320 spent there. There's a stack of dishes and cutlery on 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.120 the coffee table in front of him. He's the ghost 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.640 of their dad, heavy brows, a twice broken nose, an 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.280 ancient thick sweater despite the heat, and a smile that'll 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.240 never let you in on the joke. More hymn than 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.360 their mom, some more Filipino than Italian, and Gino never 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.800 pegged as either remembers again to resent him for it. Jesus, 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.440 you actually showed, Stevie says to him. There's a pause 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.280 where Gino's supposed to say something biting, but he doesn't 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.000 rise to it. Stevie shrugs. He got about a minute 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.320 to turn around and leave before the rest notice you're here, 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.760 Eugenio Stevie's husband frozen halfway down the stairs. Got some 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:25.480 fucking nerves showing up here. Kevin Gino says he hasn't 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.640 set his bag down yet. You look good, change your hair, 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.160 don't tell me how I fucking look you. Geno his 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.520 name Ricochet, is down the hall and around the kitchen, 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:37.920 then back out into the living room, carried on the 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.239 high voices of his nieces, who make him hug them. 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.679 One of them takes his bag upstairs, whispering something strident 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.480 to her dad on the way. Jasmine. Geno thinks, the 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.160 one with freckles is Jasmine. The other one is Roxy, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.680 who's telling him about what they're making in the kitchen, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.760 what they had to substitute in the ponset, what they 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:01.000 grew in the community garden. Cousins, assorted children, neighborhood aunties, 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.360 and their husband cycle into the room with dry kisses 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.240 and slaps on the shoulder, telling him he hasn't changed 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.680 at all, telling him he's gained weight. Kevin slips behind 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.720 them all and into the kitchen, and Gino tells everyone 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:14.920 that he needs to go volunteer to help out his mom. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.400 Before word spreads that he rolled up to her house, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:22.360 expecting to stand around being waited on. He steps heavy 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.040 down the short hall back to the kitchen, less to 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.160 give Kevin and his mom warning he's coming, and more 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.160 to spare himself whatever they were saying about him, which 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.160 might have been a sound strategy in another family. Don't know, 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.480 I bothered, Kevin is saying, from less of a distance. 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.679 Now Gino can see white in his hair, and that 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:46.400 pinched line between his brow never quite disappears. Kevin spots 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.720 Gino in the doorway and turns back to tell his 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.800 mother in law, it's a cruel thing to do to you, Francesca. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.640 God knows he's just going to turn around and leave tomorrow. 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.040 His mom, her small hands shining with oil inflecked with 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.679 carrot skins, turns and sees him well. She says, will 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:08.320 you head out tomorrow? Hey ma? Nah, No, I took 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.920 the week off. Takes about a day to get back, though, 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.680 took a day to get here, so I can stay 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.959 a couple days. She looks him up and down, then 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.600 away just as quickly and goes back to chopping a lemon. 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.800 He adds, right now there's a break between the last 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.280 project and the shoreline thing in Maine. I don't know 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.600 if you've heard about it real. Glad you could squeeze 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.520 us into your busy schedule, Kevin says, about a year 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.120 late for the funeral, but it's the thought that counts right. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.319 He leaves a heaping bowl of rice under one arm 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.040 and a pan of lasagna under the other. For a 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.400 long minute, Gino just watches his mother work, reaching for 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.679 this and that, washing her hands. There's less of her 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.360 in reality than there had been in his imagination. She 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:53.640 tells him the garlic bread is ready, and he falls 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.360 into the routine of ducking outside to turn off the gas, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.320 grabbing the wire basket on top of the fridge, a 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.960 cloth from the drawer on the left, and plucking the 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.440 steaming slices from the oven pan, folding them under the cloth. 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.040 With the buttery smell of a thousand ancient dinners. Around 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.920 the kitchen table. There's a lot of chatter coming from 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.320 the front room, and someone comes in and out of 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.400 the back door to bring in the folding chairs that 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.000 have been rusting out there since before Gino was born. 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:22.880 Gino hovers in the middle of the kitchen. He's spent 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.720 an inordinate amount of time over the past weeks thinking 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.760 about what he'd say to her. Even in his imagination, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:33.040 he never quite got it right. Finally, he asks, is 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.120 there anything else to do? His mom waves a hand 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:40.320 at him without turning around. Take those out there, okay, 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.920 and then he tries, I'm sorry, ma for what he's 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.560 wiping down the counter now piling pans and ladles in 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:52.280 the sink. Or Gino takes a couple breaths. He's feeling 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:54.920 a little sick, which isn't the same as feeling sorry, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.240 but it is close enough that he's sure it is 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:01.040 what he should say. I should have been here last year. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.000 His mom is brisk, business like with her hands. She 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.600 shakes her head. You were gone a long time before 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.160 that you knew you weren't coming back, she says it, plainly, 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:33.440 without accusation, right, Gino says okay. He carries the basket 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.440 of bread into the front room. Out front, there are 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.760 people everywhere on mismatched chairs, kids cross legged on the floor, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.920 and not enough plates for everyone. A neighbor comes in 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:44.920 the door with a package of paper plates to make 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.480 up the difference. Stevie gestures Geno over to a spot 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:50.520 he's saved on the couch, and their mom comes in 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.640 and settles herself into the big, cracked leather armchair that 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.160 used to be their dad's. There's a moment where everyone pauses, 0:15:57.240 --> 0:15:59.960 leaning over their plates. The youngest kid in the room 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.480 asks if they can eat now, and Uncle Lenny turns 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.200 to Gino's mom and says, hold up, Francesca, you want 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.200 to say something. She says yes and puts her plate 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.640 down on her lap. She'd insisted on taking one of 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.280 the paper plates. She runs a quick hand over the 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.320 arm of the chair. It's strange to see her in it. 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.240 It's strange to see her. I hear it's not always 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.360 easy to get here across the water these days, and 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.120 it's nice to see you. Who did? She nods at 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.200 some folks eu Gino didn't know had moved away. The 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.320 house is always better with a whole lot of people 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.160 in it, even if it's a little crowded. Nato and 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.280 I moved in here him a few months before Stevie 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.240 was born, all the way across town for an extra bedroom. 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:40.960 When we had Eugenio and he wanted his own room. 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.680 Nato told him, you can make a down payment, then 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.800 you get your own room. There's some laughter in Gino's direction. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.480 His mom turns to her own brother and Lenny, you 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.040 know our dad, God rest him. He didn't like me 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.480 taking up with Nato, didn't like us moving away from 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.600 the old neighborhood. And we had some conversations about all that. 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.000 Lenny chuckles, incredulous that what you want to call it? 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.960 All right, she says, we had some loud conversations about 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.679 all that, But then give it ten twenty years and 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.040 him and Nato were best goddamn friends, getting up to 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.240 all sorts of trouble together here in this house. When 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.920 Dad passed, it was a mess, you know what I mean. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.240 I wasn't ready for that. She looks at Gino for 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.960 a moment, then at Stevie and your father. He held 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.159 me up and gave me ways to say goodbye. We 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.040 did this for my dad the year after. And if 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:33.560 anyone said it was a little strange to have a 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.399 babang lusa for some old Italian from South Philly, then 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.399 they had to have a loud conversation with me. She 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.080 clutches a hand on Lenny's knee. This year, us of 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.560 all held me up, So let's eat and say goodbye 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.359 to Nato. Kevin and a cousin who Gino couldn't place 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.479 take charge of dishing out food. There's a massive salad 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.879 that he hadn't noticed before, weighed down by a mount 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.440 of black olives and grated parmesan. The lasagna is meatless, 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.920 but the pansup beyond his chicken and liver. And there's 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.480 something that smells like a dobo, even if it doesn't 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.520 look like it. Jasmine and Roxy start a folk war 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.280 over the best looking corner slice of lasagna, which Kevin 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.639 settles by taking it for himself. Gino lets mostly everyone 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.840 be served before him while he tries to unclench his 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:20.359 hands and his jaw from his left. Lenny shovels all 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.480 the olives from his own plate onto Gino's an old 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.520 joke he'd forgotten they shared. Good to have you around here, 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.560 Lenny says. Can't get anyone else to take those off 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:32.120 your hands, not all of them at once. I got 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.840 to do two here, three, there, hit five, six plates. 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.080 It's a logistical nightmare. That's rough man. Luckily I'm a 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.480 logistics guy. Oh yeah, you uh still with the uh? 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.960 What's the thing? Army Corps of Engineers yeah, Gino catches 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:51.320 Lenny's searching Look almost ten years now, he offers. Roxy 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.280 breaks off talking to the neighbor kids and shoots Stephen, accusing, Look, 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.520 Uncle Gino's in the army. No, Gino answers for her cors. 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.920 Mostly see, we do infrastructure projects, building stuff. They did 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.240 the levees downtown. You worked on that, Roxy lights up. 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.399 The levees would have been big news in the city 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.440 when she was a kid. They're half the reason their 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.639 little island is still above water. No, Kevin says, he 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.639 was long gone, but the mail still came. Then he 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.800 sent you postcards from all his little projects. When was 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.160 the levee? What year was that? Hmm? Roxy looks uncomfortable, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:30.040 but Jasmine puts in that she was in sixth grade, right, 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.840 big year. You were in that inner city youth boxing thing, Jess. 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.080 She made the quarter finals. Where were you that time? 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.600 Eugenio Gino isn't sure what year Jasmine was in the 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.359 sixth grade or exactly how old she is now, but 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.800 he can see Kevin waiting for him to ask. Connecticut. 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:51.360 He says, coastal restoration. Oh yeah, how'd that work out 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.320 for Connecticut? Come on, keV, says Stevie. Gino says, not bad. 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:01.280 Last I heard, I've seen worse. Yeah, me too, Lenny says, 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.399 and jerks his chin at the front window. Everyone laughs. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.240 Gino nods, which is close enough to laughing. Another neighbor, 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:11.560 a big guy whose name Gino can't come up with, 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.280 asks use guy's got work planned down here, and the 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.959 woman next to him, his wife maybe, says oh, they 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.320 should put up boardwalks, and somebody else we've been saying 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.919 there's plenty of high enough ground for boardwalks to connect 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.880 up to downtown. They gonna do that, Gino, They don't 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:30.960 really tell me that kind of thing. I just keep 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.760 the truck and everything running. I'm a you know what 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.119 I mean, A glorified mechanic. He trails off, and his 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:41.080 brother laughs. Please. Stevie says, they're not gonna do shit. 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.960 I mean, sorry, but you're not right. The levee was 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:50.200 what eight years back and nothing since that they gave up. Francesca, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.800 who had been quiet eating, says they did, but that's okay. 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:57.440 Everyone is allowed to give up when they got a 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.560 from the tension in the room. A popular statement, but 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:06.560 nobody argues her on it. After a second someone brings 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.000 up the NBA finals and how piss Nato would have 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.520 been that the Raptors made it this far again, and 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.399 then his general grudge against Canadian teams in the NBA, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.800 and then his earnest incompetence on the court himself as 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.520 a young man. And then a picture is brought out 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:23.240 of a shoe box, and it's Gino, perhaps three years old, 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.560 with a bowl cut and a look of childish ecstasy 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.200 up on his father's shoulders, his father's hands holding up 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.240 Gino's chubby, childlike legs, Gino's arms up at the end 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.080 of an arc, a basketball in the air, suspended in 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.200 the moment before it fell short of the net. Gino 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.280 ducks out to sit on the front stoop and finds 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.800 a pack of Stevie's cigarettes where he's always left them, 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.119 in the nook of the broken corner of the top step. 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:49.520 He lights one just as the screen door creaks open 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:51.679 and shut, and his brother sucks his teeth at him 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.960 and says a asshole. Gino hands him the one he's 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.399 lit and takes another for himself. They settle into their 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.520 old arranged Gino facing the street on the middle step, 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:05.920 Stevie behind him, leaning back against the railing between the 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.080 two of them, A view of the narrow street and 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.800 the intersection nearby, and all of the folks who would 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:15.800 wander over to shoot the shit. Nobody wandering today, Just 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.760 the distant figures of other stoop loiterers at another house. 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:24.720 A familiar view, but uncanny. It's so quiet around here, 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:30.359 Gino says, it's weird. It's been this quiet for hell years. 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:35.280