07 Mar 07

The Royo Romance (Part 7)

Click here for Part 6.

Today there were food visits. Inmates descended upon Visitation like packs of hyenas joining a fresh kill. If the visitors hadn’t brought food their limbs would have been gnawed. After devouring home-cooked and restaurant meals, many inmates felt ill afterwards. Waiting to be strip-searched, some inmates fought hard not to throw up.

Royo Girl had stopped by one of my old haunts, Gandhi’s in Tucson, and picked up a box full of Indian food: vegetable samosas, aloo parantha, garlic naan, bhegan bharta, aloo gobi and lots of rice.

After the visit I wrote:

Thank you for allowing my stomach, that has shrunk from nearly five years of living off skimpy portions of prison chow, to overindulge in Indian food. The meal was so scrumptious I am yet to brush my teeth. The taste lingers in my mouth, and lingering in my mind is how sexy you looked dressed all in black. As I didn’t know you were coming the surprise was all the more magical.

We have the opposite problem of two people who run out of things to say: we have so much to say that we keep losing track of what we are talking about. We have good chemistry. I enjoy how you take me to task with your sharp intellect. You did it skilfully today as I suffered the handicap of having a mouth permanently full of food, thus reducing my ability to respond.

Earlier today Weird Al teased that you wouldn't show up. So after the visit, I boasted to him about what you'd brought. I told him you remembered to put the food in clear containers, and he said you only did so because you had already visited five other prisoners today. When I said you were considering coming to the May food visit, he said you would be married with two kids by then. He said that DOC has him so hungry that if someone brought him food he would rugby tackle them.

In questioning you, I’m trying to peel back layers of your personality to get closer to your core. I sense you’re holding back and there’s still lots to learn. I want to learn more. That may be a lifelong task, albeit an enjoyable one. I’ve discovered from analyzing myself that it’s hard to fathom who we are because we are always changing. But I shall continue to study you, and hopefully, after I’m released, we will continue our friendship. I at least owe you a romantic dinner at a restaurant in England.

There's something about you I haven't figured out yet, something that seems to be bringing us closer together despite the peculiar circumstances.

Thank you for coming today, and bringing food. I’m forever in your debt.

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