On friendship

I remember the first time G. stopped in, just to talk. It was early days, when he still worked up the street. I was here with someone - A. maybe? - and we were in the back working on some project. I feel like we were on our hands and knees on the floor with stacks of books. What could we have been doing? 2020-2021 was a weird time. Maybe it was a return. Maybe it was an online school fair. Who knows. “Don’t get up!” G. said and he came around the counter and perched on the stool to chat with us. It was so nice. Partly because he didn’t interrupt the flow of our work. He came in to tell us some story, about John Updike maybe, something he remembered that he knew we would like, and then out he flew. It was almost disappointing when he left. 

I remember thinking that I hadn’t known that would happen. I hadn’t thought about how I would build relationships with people in the neighborhood. I hadn’t thought friendship might be possible.