As in:
Foster had known Pauline before, during, and after her barfly days, an eight year period that she, herself, described as the pursuit of life in a semi-conscious state of deep psychic healing. Yes, it’s really true. She regularly described it that way. And about half her friends, relatives and acquaintances accepted this description as a sign of profound self-awareness and spiritual insight on her part. The remainder were divided between those who hadn’t the faintest idea what she was talking about, and those who got the self-deprecating joke and thought it pretty damn funny. God love her for being able to laugh about it.
Foster was in the latter group. For two people who were never really meant to be together, Foster and Pauline really got each other. It’s just that he had waited too long to let his guard down, and she had waited too long to admit that she had been wrong to think, for so long, that she could do better than Foster. Yes, he didn’t finish high school. Yes, he didn’t always use words like “hopefully,” and “dipshit,” at just the best times and with good syntax. Yes, he didn’t have a 401 K or dental insurance. Yes, he couldn’t discuss culture, religion and art in ways that were fluent, let alone referential. But he was good with kids, and cars, and could wire just about anything with the collection of magic in the back of his pickup.
“You still like fancy beer don’t you?” he asked as fished with his hand along the top shelf of her refrigerator.
“Oh, get off!” she snapped back. “Look try this.”
With that she pulled a Corona out of the fridge by reaching through his armpit, popped the cap off and squirted a wedge of lime into it. She then took a blue corn chip and dipped it into a bowl of yellowish salsa sprinkled with black beans, and stuck it right in his mouth, hard, like she was delivering the mail.
“Jeezus that’s good!” he said. “What is that?”
“I call it Harambe, it’s a Swahili word that means coming together as one.”
He licked his lips and took a drink of beer.
“Wow,” he said, “and I’m sure this is exactly what they had in mind.”
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