missed conversations, part 1

central market

"I am going to go completely insane. One day I'm just going to hurl one of these honeydew melons over there." He points high above the flowers, past the wall partition. "I'm going to just chunk it across the store." The person talking is N., a checker at Central Market that Steve and I have come to know in just a few visits. N. is short and slight in figure and talks so quietly you have to strain to hear his every word. He remains silent as he rings us up, so serious he may be doing some advanced calculus in his head. Until he sees Steve. Then he comes to life, as if we are old friends. "Oh, hey guys."

"How are you?" asks Steve. "It's totally nuts," says N. "I'm thinking about just walking out that door and not coming back. Maybe getting a one way ticket to Europe - you know they are only about $400 dollars right now. I could sell my car and do it." If this guy isn't an RTF major at UT, I don't know who is.

"Yeah, and if it doesn't work out, just get a bike when you come back,"says Steve, ever the optimist. "I rode a bike for years, it was great." (It wasn't.) "What kind of van do you have?"

N. looks at him. "I don't have a van. I have a car. But I used to have a van. A buddy of mine helped me fix it up and I got some money for it. My car is also a junker. But it runs. I bet I could get 400 for it."

The line is getting long behind us as N. has pretty much stopped working.

"We'll talk to you later man," says Steve.

"Yeah," says N.

I hate to leave but know we'll be back. We know where to find N. and we're praying for him.


elevator in state building

Steve is wearing his Nashvegas passion t-shirt, partially obscured by his state badge. An attractive woman gets on the elevator.

"Oh, hey, I like your shirt," she says to him.

"Thanks!" he replies.

"Does that say Nasti Gras?"

"What? No!"

"Oh, I thought it did." She apologizes. Awkward silence on elevator.