For those interested, this is how it all began.

grey and gear

From Timothy R. Harrison to You Sent Jan 15, 2013    …

I’ve never been in a monolingual community before. In my birthplace, I heard mostly English but there was always that hint of Italian and Chinese from one or two families living in the neighborhood. I can barely remember any of that though considering that I was eight when I left. Whitechapel could not have been more diverse. Among the English, there was Russian. There was polish. There was Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. There was always a bit of Indian and definitely, most certainly French.…

“ma zeh be anglit?” what is this in English? I rested my hand on the table in the galley. Kolfifa stared at me with a stare of resentment. I raised my eyebrow expectantly. He leaned forward on the bench and rested his head in his lanky crossed arms.  “Yala. Atah rotzei lomed anglit oh lo?” come on. You want to study English or not? I tapped my foot and he remained silent.

“lama?” Why? Kolfifa asked. “Yeshli-“ I have-

“Oti?” me? I cut him off.…

“She smiles when she lies; even if it’s not funny.” David said before taking a long, bubbling drag of the shisha. I shrugged as he let out a breath of lemon mint smoke that disappeared in a cloud.

“That’s not true” Marlow waved.

“ain’t it though?” David replied.

“Alright, Ara. Lie to me.” Marlow  sat up straight and so did I from the cushiony pile of pillows I was leaning on as we smoked shisha in the middle of the main residential area (if you will).  “Lie to me,” he…