I was quarter of an hour into my lunch time, just got off the phone with my mom thousands and thousands of miles away, quickly ran to the bank and headed to my fave pizza place. Except as I was walking in, the name of the place seemed different, it didn’t say “Pizza Peddler”, it said something to do with “Tommy’s” whatever. I was like, darn it, now I have another decision to make, if I would like this place or not. So I as entered that place, there was a small mob of office crowd at the cash counter, so I realized that this was a --- order, pay and then sit kinda place. As I was still processing the thoughts, I saw a very familiar face that I haven’t seen in 4 – 5 years I think or maybe more. I was like wow ! not in million years had I ever thought that I would run into him again. From that distance he looked at me, and gave me the most familiar smile, and he said I know you, and I said I know you too, and the registration of the memory just flowed into conversation.
He owned “Carmine’s” a small, neatest, working class kinda pizzeria in a very small protected town called “Eagle”, it’s not the same anymore, neither the town nor the pizza place. Anyway, it was so old, it had antique lights, the doors were before my time I’d say, and the people coming there are people who worked around there and lot of locals. You couldn’t miss a beat of a local gossip there, it was that happening. The place was almost crumbling, no literally, there was no parking place, it was located right off the street, so we’d just pull in wherever there was room to. Eventually, some big shot builder bought that land and bulldozed that small joint that must have been older than 80-100 years. Everyone felt sad, there was a sense of loss, something familiar won’t be there anymore. So with that I had lost memory of him. I use to work near by there, and use to frequent that pizza place. Sometimes, his employees would give us a free slice of pizza too : ) Of course this was all before my swanky haircut, so I was all the more surprised that he remembered me. Anyway, to see the same guy, I forget if his name is Tom, Tim or Mike, but he is as Italian as a Pizzeria can be.
I’ve noticed that these days it’s happening more than ever before. I run into people here and there, and have small talks, exchange stories of our live’s and go on, and then I bump into another one. Just few days ago, K called me over for a yoga class her father had been hosting, then the next day I ran into M at Home Depot, she was there to pick up gloves and I was there to pick up hardwood floor cleaner : ( she suggested a brand and I blindly took that home. I gave her a msg for K that I cant make it to K’s yoga class. Last Friday, I ran into A at Subway, I remembered he went with his family to South of France, so I asked him details of it. I believe his camera was pick pocketed while they were in Paris, I was like what. I felt bad for him, his wife and boy took French language classes together preparing for the trip. But life goes on.
Anyway, Tom waved me good bye and asked me come back again, as a business man he is, he asked me to take some menu’s with me so that we can order for pizza delivery, I smiled and stepped out to realize that one of the a branches of the bank he use to frequent then is right opposite to his new pizzeria. Darn, the world IS small.
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