A Reset of Sorts

Khruangbin - Cómo Me Quieres

On the plate in front of him was a small epicurean bounty: slices of Bartlett pear, some smokey Gouda, a handful of green olives and a spread of thinly sliced soppresatta. And next to the plate, a cold can of pilsner, beads of condensation sweating out in the late afternoon Texas heat. In fact, everything was sweating, the cheese, the meat, himself…

A breeze brought the trees around him to life, and they waved to him and to each other, each one in conversation. A mockingbird torpedoed across the yard, landing on the corner of the fence for a pause. The turtle doves cooed and purred in the distance. A small brown lizard scurried across the cracked concrete patio slab, blending it with the weathered red hue well enough to catch an unsuspecting insect, then retreating with equal speed back to the safety of the abundant green grass.

A small grey squirrel caught his attention. It was watching him from the fence, and they made eye contact, and held it for what seemed like minutes. With his eyes, he assured the creature he intended no harm, and they both kept still, watching each other. He got bored first, broke his gaze, reached to the plate and wrapped a piece of the cheese, some pear and an olive in one of the oily slices of meat and popped it all in his mouth. The combination of flavors was earthy and buttery, punctuated at the end by a spiky garlic from the olives.

He smiled, looked up towards the plain of endless blue sky and took a cool, long pull of his beer…