Billem

 I go to Home Depot and eyeball cheap, ugly rugs and then walk to Madison Park to Shake Shack. I order and wipe raindrops off a chair. This big, young, friendly looking lug of a guy at the next table over says … this one here is dry. Take it. I think for a few seconds - I’m not sure if he means take the chair back to my table or - if he means I should join him - so I sit at his table. He’s Bill - something close to that but fancier, Billem maybe - from Germany- call me Bill. He’s Bosnian and 27 and has a lovely accent and writes short stories and teaches wrestling to young kids after leaving a job in publishing. He looks like a big good ole Southern bearded bad boy but speaks very intelligently about his trip and home and work. He lives with his troubled mother in a forest outside of Stuttgart and is here until Sunday and then he’s off to Texas. We eat burgers and fries and he talks about Hemingway. I tell him I am on my way to Rizzollis bookstore and invite him to join me. He does and afterwards we walk thru Union Square to the Strand. His sweet different culture politeness/formality shines thru. He wants me to choose a book for him and sign it. I tell him it's either East of Eden or Grapes of Wrath. I say East is my fav Steinbeck but Grapes is more important. He buys East and says he’ll buy Grapes when he gets home. He admires the paper stock of the book and shows me clothes he bought at Carhartt, including what looks like the biggest shirt I've ever held. He tells me he "carries" 287 pounds. And he's not fat. Every time we move thru a door he says let me get that for you. We walk thru Washington Square, he asks me what kind of things I paint. I say, well, if you want to have a beer and take in my rooftop view I can show you. He says great, we walk home and go up to my roof and Richards there with the flowers. He asks Richard to take a pic of the two of us in front of the Empire State. Back downstairs, he asks me how old I am and is shocked when I tell him. We talk Hitler and politics and he is much more informed and thoughtful about history and now than I am. I show him a video of Tracy Ullman doing Merkel. I sign his book and we exchange contact info and he says … I’m here till Sunday if you want to have coffee or something. He says thank you, you’re a good man and bows before he leaves.