Fast Times

Antonia -- where to start. well she was with me between the ages of 10 and 13 or was it 11 and 14. she was in on the infamous alessia-took-a-bite-off-la-nonna's-arm incident and i spent a glorious month with her in the the country when my parents flapped off to morocco and i hid my terrible grades at the bottom of their suitcase. she recounted with brisk humour the lengths la tiz went to hide my father's bottles. including at the bottom of my toy box. she reminds me of my childhood. she is full of andalucian warmth and wisdom. i wept buckets on seeing her. during and after. she is 76. in good shape. she still dances the tango. she chokes up thinking about her husband florentin who died 6 years ago of lung cancer, and frowns at my puffing at countless cigarettes between entrees. "se lo digo a tu madre" . i wonder if i'll see her again. she left me her pink hanky. it's covered in my snot. already.