crown heights carbonara

it starts on the stoop, look

for the lock box with a

heart, says my daughter on

the phone from work, only

there is no heart, but there are

five people sitting on the

stoop, chill, on this steamy

summer late afternoon, they

are laughing about something

and in the middle of a story

when the man in a dark

blue track suit asks,

what are you looking

for?

I tell them a lock box with

a heart and the lady with

long pink nails says maybe

the heart washed away in

the rain, it rained pretty

heavy a few days ago, she

says, so I try the code on all

the lock boxes but none

of them open

let me try, says the lady

with the nails, and leans

over to flip the dials and

push down buttons, but

still, nothing opens

careful! don’t break your

nails, I say

oh I won’t, she promises

and asks her brother, the

guy sitting next to her

in a white t-shirt, he’s

strong, she says and

wouldn’t you know it

but he has the magic touch,

shimmies it open and

now I am in possession

of the keys to my daughter’s

apartment

and I say thank you about

a hundred times a hundred

times and the lady with the

nails says,

team work makes dream work

we fist bump and her brother

asks where I’m visiting from

I say San Diego to help

my daughter move but first

things first, tonight I say

I’m making carbonara

is that with cream? the lady

with the nails asks and before

I can answer the man in the

dark blue track suit says,

no, you’re thinking alfredo,

carbonara has egg yolks and

guanciale and pecorino romano

we all nod impressed, I tell

them I’ve never made it before

and I’m nervous and the

man in the track suit tells me

to warm a bowl to hold the pasta

it’s all about regulating the heat

he says, and now I’ve got full-on

tears or maybe just a full heart and

say, you all saved me today

and the lady with the nails repeats,

team work is dream work

and the carbonara recipe man

holds open the door and

reminds me to make sure to

use pecorino romano and not

parmesan, people often confuse them

and later that night, as the girls

and I sit around the table sipping

white wine and slurping spaghetti

a la carbonara I say a silent

blessing to my team on the stoop