Bra & Girll

 Bra & Girll 

[The story of Roz and Ted’s excellent tramp steamer adventure begins here.]

Tural has suggested “Bra & Girll, if we want to venture out: “American food,” he said, as well as “little sheep and little cow.” Also, his friend Ratul “speak English. Help you.”

     We begin language lessons tomorrow with a woman, “very good,” Tural says. First lesson, I think: learn to read the menu, point and pronounce. And learn: “What is this?” - and if it’s okay to point at all. 

Our hotel room smells of pine, the hotel lobby of lavender. The restaurant does smell like American food, burgers and fries and bleach.

All the tables in “Bra & Girll” are for six. Ratul seats us with a young couple, both wearing eye-shadow. The young man speaks a little English. Later, a pair of men in gray suits joins us. They nod, offer wisps of smiles; but they talk only to each other - in German.

The boy says, “I Nemet. This Zayna.” Both are “student," accent on the last syllable. He studies “fō·tō·gra·fee.” She studies “li·teh·ra·tour.” (Also accented on their last syllables.) She “very smart. Me, not so much.” He tells her apparently, what he has said, for she shrugs, then laughs - almost crows, like a small rooster just finding his voice.

     But he gives us a card for a show of his pictures. “Begin next week,” he says. He pauses, begins to count, “Wan, tew, Wed-nes-day,” he says. “You here?” I look at Roz. She shrugs. I nod. He takes the card back and draws a map on the back, very tidy.

     “We here.” He marks it with a tiny x. “Fotos [long-s] here,” a tiny perfect circle.

     “See you,” he says when they leave. She waves.

We leave next, nodding to the German speakers. Their suits aren’t just gray, they are identical; they are wearing identical white shirts but different ties. We leave them arguing in one voice about den Scheisskopf, Dummkopf, Leerkopf. I think they are talking about our president, but Roz thinks a mutual friend - with an identical gray suit and shirt but a different tie.

The street smells of the sea - and ash.

07.20.18