-4-

Ammo Hail left a note for me yesterday telling me that he wasn't feeling well and apologized for not leaving the door open for me; he had to leave early. I walked head first and smashed my head against the door yet was grateful for his note.

With a handful of mint stems I got from Miss Tea that I gathered and tied with a ribbon –I was so excited to finally put one ribbon of my collection into use. I started walking to Ammo's building direction to pay him a visit.

I was a bit hesitant to ring his apartment's bell at first; he needed the rest and this would make him get up. But I did anyways; I already walked all the way here.

An old man who looked nothing like Ammo opened the door. He stared at me raising his bushy, grey eyebrows.

"Quickly give me a country starting with the letter S" the old man demanded, I thought it was like a password thing.

"Um, Saudi Arabia"

"Did anyone get Saudi?" he shouted looking back, one answered "yes" and I could hear people laughing inside.

"Give me another one dear" he asked me again looking now desperate.

"Ah, Sira… Sierra Leone?" I swallowed, felt quite in the spot and hoped he didn't notice I said it slightly wrong.

"Sira Loan anyone?" he yelled making fun of how I said it looking back and laughter was ringing my ear again, I smiled; it was a joyous blend of many laughs.

"You're good, let the kid in" one yelled from inside.

The man who opened the door scribbled Sierra Leone correctly on the last space on a paper he squished in his fist and let me in.

Holding on to my humble mint bouquet I walked inside. It was an apartment similar to ours but it looked like Ammo knocked all the walls down; it's one big room and a bathroom in the corner.

Ammo was lying on a bed but sat up when he saw me and gave me the widest smile. On the floor next to his bed sat 5 old men, each one of them was holding a paper or a notebook and a pen.

"You got to excuse me dear I can't get up" one with a beanie said, "I'm sitting on a donut cushion; would be embarrassing if you knew that" he said and they all laughed.

"It's okay" I said still standing feeling awkward, I looked at Ammo considering he's the only friendly face here and gave him the mint thing. He smiled, I hope he likes mint tea… or mint in salads or mint in general.

"This is Bliss, from work." Ammo said.

"Bliss from work I thought you'd be much older" the man who opened the door said, they all looked at me nodding. "But then again, one always assumes first what is familiar."

"Wanna join us?" One in a yellow sweatshirt said.

Ammo instantly pulled the drawer from his nightstand and took out a pen from a huge stack tied with a pink hair tie, and a paper from the top of the pile and gave them to me.

"It's simple, you divide the paper into 5 columns" one in a brown jacket said, "one for names, one for animals, one for plants (fruits and vegetables included), one for objects and the last is for countries. We choose a letter and start writing in each column starting with the letter we chose" he paused and squinted at me, "did you get that or do you need an example?"

"I think I got it" I said feeling nervous.

"The catch is, if one player wrote something already, you should change it!" The one who opened the door told me, "the score is 50 per-round, 10 for each column"

"It used to be competitive" one in glasses said, "the opponents with the same name or animal… etcetera, would both only get 5 points."

"But now we just wanna keep our brains running" one in the brown jacket said.

"Also, we're all sore losers and when you're this old, life is even shorter" one with the beanie and donut pillow said.

Ammo Hail gave us the letter R and suddenly everyone realized how harder this was gonna get now that they added another player. We had to come up with 6 different names, Ralph was a popular choice as 3 players had to change it, while the man in the brown jacket insisted his choice "Rumbly" was an actual name.

Six different animals: Raccoon, Rat, Rabbit, Raven and Robin (they said birds are okay too) and the one who opened the door for me wrote "Randa" and said he had a P lisp and always called pandas randas, which made everyone else make him apologize to me.

He was making fun of me because when I read my name out loud, I got excited and said it was Rojie. The one in the brown jacket who is to my right took my paper and yelled "she means Rosie" and they all burst in laughter.

I wasn't bothered one bit how they thought it was funny, I actually found it quite endearing. I remembered Jade The Cafeteria guy telling me he was okay with his teeth whistling some words because it made people laugh.

Those men laughed at everything and I was laughing with them. It's like no one cares if there's a joke; they just want to laugh and live the spontaneous happiness they randomly found themselves in.

The one letter took about an hour with the amount of time wastd on teasing, laughing and getting out of the subject. By the time we got to countries it was the slowest…

"So, the kid got Romania" the one in the yellow sweatshirt said looking at us all, who was still making the one in glasses laugh at him because his wife called and yelled at him for being out late again.

"And I got Rwanda and the rest got Russia" the one in the brown jacket said.

"Is this the day 3 of us are 10 points short? Say it isn't so!" The one who opened the door said, "can you google some countries?" he looked at me desperately while everyone else was laughing.

The one with the glasses was laughing so hard he stared coughing, the one with the yellow sweatshirt started tapping on his back to help him stop coughing while laughing along.

"Sure" I got my phone feeling cheeky.

I checked a couple results and all said there's only 3 countries starting with the letter R: Russia, Rwanda and Romania. I showed it to the man in brown jacket and he clapped his hands and showed my phone to the one who opened the door for me who cried a "NO" then laughed and started shaking everyone's hand shaking his head in disbelief.

"Today's your lucky day" the one in yellow sweatshirt told me, "winner gets all."

The one in the beanie got on his feet and walked to the fridge behind me, "you can see the donut pillow now, it's purple and I love it" he said pride passing by me.

I don't even know how long I've been sitting here, how long we've been playing… all I know is this has been one of the easier days I've lived with a dad figure since Baba passed.

"When we decided we'd all get a perfect score in this game, Hail made us spare a dollar each in the box we put in the freezer for the day someone finally wins" the yellow sweatshirt man told me.

"Since you helped me with my first country, we want you to have the money." The one who opened the door told me and I suddenly didn't know how to react. I just came for a visit, not make them lose their money.

"Don't freak out" the one in glasses said, "we haven't been playing long, it's not a lot."

"No, please…" I said and it's like my mind froze and I didn't even touch the frozen money! I can't take their money.

"Listen" the one in the beanie sat next to me with the little frozen box in his hand. "This money is something we spared for the heck of it. Splitting it wouldn't add or lessen anything really. I'm glad we lost to you, we would've been bitter about it without you." He smiled and patted my back and put the little box next to me. I couldn't help but look at Ammo who was smiling at me, I shrugged looking at him but he gave me a nod.

"Consider it a birthday gift dear" the one in the brown jacket suggested.

"When is your birthday?" the one who opened the door asked.

"Um" I hesitated, "October"

"There you go" the one in glasses said, "no one knows if we're gonna live that long!"

I gave a nervous laugh and everyone just burst out laughing and the air wasn't heavy anymore and it was again a lovely day. The sunlight was fading from the window and I realized it was getting late and I had to be at work; it was a long way back.

I excused myself and got up, wished Ammo a goodnight and a better day tomorrow. Then I thanked his friends for including me in their game and day in general. I tried to walk out without the box but the one who opened the door for me made sure I have it.

"Hey kid" he whispered, "I was only kidding when I yelled everyone knows Romania is a fictional country!" He gave a cheeky laugh, "I just didn't wanna lose" he winked and his face charmingly crumbled.

They walked me out and wished me a goodnight. The one with the yellow sweatshirt offered me a ride but honestly, I lied and said I lived nearby.

The little box they gathered money in is a Givenchy Gentlemen cologne box. One of the men there –I think it was the one in the brown jacket, smelled of something nice, maybe this was it.

After I'd got back from work, I put the box in the fridge and turned on the TV sitting on my armchair staring at the other that Baba left empty.

If it weren't for the man who told me it was a beautiful day, I wouldn't have noticed. Clear sky, just enough sunlight that it's bright enough to make everything look beautiful but wouldn't hurt your eyes one bit. That's too much of a typical day to my liking.

To me a beautiful day is a cloudy cold day, I like the cold. Not the kind of cold that would reach to your bones and make you feel like it's torture. Just the kind that makes you want to drink tea and walk around wearing a hoodie. Would be even lovelier to get on a car ride with all windows down to feel how chilling the breeze could get.

Baba told me about the first time he'd ever seen snowfall. He was just a kid in Germany visiting his grandparents in the hospital where his dad was going through a heart surgery. He was tired of waiting and asked his mom, my granny if he could go downstairs to get something to eat. When he was in the glass elevator he noticed how weird the sky looked and was intrigued to go out for a walk.

There was a planted area near a parking lot, he sat there on a bench wondering what's happening with the sky.

"I looked at the chocolate bar I got from the hospital cafeteria. I wasn't too familiar with the chocolate choices I found so I picked this one because it was red. You know I love red. It was my first KitKat. I unsealed it and on it fell a snowflake, it looked exactly how they drew them in the illustrated books my mom used to read. I never knew that was how snowflakes actually looked like. I simply assumed they drew them like that to get across how magical snow is! When I looked up, it was cotton-candy-explosion snowing."

That was exactly how he said it. The look on his face was something I can never get off my mind. I could tell he was imagining how magical it felt to be covered with perfect shaped snowflakes once more. Perhaps he wouldn't have liked KitKat so much if it weren't for that one particular moment associated with it.

"BLISS!" I heard and jumped off my chair, with my hand on my heart as I realijed it was Irish standing in front of me.

"IRISH!" I gave a sigh of relief.

"That's how you say my name?" she chuckled, "feel free to give me a nickname."

She's got a green purse tucked under her arm, I never had one of those. Well, it's never been necessary.

Her well-dressed and poised self wasn't a first impression thing; she's still got it. She's wearing skinny jeans with a white buttoned up shirt tucked in. Her black pearl necklace is still there. She walked inside the parking building before I could say anything and came back with a plastic chair she placed in line with mine outside of the cabin.

The moment she sat next to me I realijed the smell I was trying to figure out the source of was from her, she smells like fresh laundry. It's making me weary because I know no matter what I do, this uniform always manages to smell like I didn't wash it enough! How fresh Irish smells right now is a whole other level of me feeling self-conscious.

"It's been a long time since I last came here" she took a deep breath, "looks the same."

"This parking is relatively new though" I said as if defending my part of town.

"Oh, yeah" she looked at it as if she just noticed it was standing there, "it's my birthday this Thursday" she said when our eyes met, she gave one toothy smile and I decided this is my favorite smile. "You should come."

"I work on Thursdays" I hurriedly said.

"Hmm, can't you take the day off?" she said playing with her black pearl necklace, "that IF you're not using your job as an excuse"

"I'm not, I promise" I nodded, "but I will manage something" I said trying to express how excited I am.

"Yes!" she looked victorious, "we don't do gifts or age" she added, looks like I won't be needing my ribbon collection… "just bring yourself."

"Can I bring the cake though?" I asked before I gather my mind around the fact that she owns a cake shop/bakery/café/frosting factory/whatever and feel stupid…

"Can you really?" she beamed at me, "I'm kind of sick of Mellow's cakes."

Cars passed and I pressed the button in quiet, it was a bit busy today. Irish sat on her chair trying to cover whatever parts of her face her bangs and sunglasses didn't. She looked as if she was sitting on a rocking chair shuddering as her eyes were observing every pedestrian. I started to get nervous for her and wondered why would she stay if it's making her this uncomfortable.

"Irish, do you want to go home?" I whispered at her when I felt like I wanted to hide her from whatever it is she's afraid of seeing.

"I just don't want to see mom" she said not looking at me and I didn't know what to say. We swiftly went back to me pushing a button and Irish hiding her face.

"Interesting landscape you got here," she said before I could tell her she can go home again. "That's the smallest small garden I've seen in front of such massive construction;" she said pointing at the humble garden of one tree and I remembered the couple who got sprinkled sitting on it and a smile crossed my face, "the buildings look lovely though standing tall together." She continued and smiled at the sight of my smile.

I looked at the buildings, mine was there. I nodded in agreement at Irish when I realijed I always thought they blocked the view but now I see they still made quite a lovely sight.

"I love the colors of clothes hanged on strings in balconies. You can spot the houses with babies, houses of small or big families" she pointed high, "that house is packed! Must be Danielle's" she made herself laugh.

There's so much innocence surrounding her words and facial expressions. I just sat there enjoying the view I always saw but never cared for following with my eyes where her finger pointed.

"The football teams each house roots for are vast, that house got both Manchester United and Chelsea. I bet lots of arguing and yelling would erupt in their house when there's a clasico! There's jerseys of football national teams and clubs… I'm sure I would have ended in a bigger family had I lived here!" She looked at me, "would I have ended in a bigger family?" and it wasn't a rhetorical yet a genuine question.

"Not necessarily" I shook my head, "my family consisted of my dad only" I got up and pulled my wallet from my back pocket to show Irish my family picture. "My balcony looks over such balconies you described, it's empty though. I dry my clothes on the heater"

"So, my balcony would still be empty." She breathed out and looked at me with what looked like relief, "I've always wondered."

She turned her face and was looking at the buildings in front of us, "our balconies shouldn't remain empty" she said.

Right now the thought of having a full house one day warms my heart. The amount of laundry might get overwhelming but I believe at the end of each day I'll think that it's worth the trouble.

A family of 9 moved next door to us some years ago. I remember going to our empty living room whenever I heard their laughter.

Though they were loud, I never tried hard to comprehend what they were saying, what they were fighting about, what they were laughing about. I just loved the lively sound of them being together. Even when I was sleepy, I never had the heart to sleep until they've gone quiet.

I shared that memory with Irish who had a similar memory, "you know our house is old compared to the houses surrounding it. Construction was often around us." Irish started with a look of regaining a memory she'd forgotten she had, "I often went to the supermarket to get a box of bottled water, juice and snacks for people working on site. Handing that to them and seeing their reactions made me feel like I was a part of something."

"You have Jack" I said remembering about him.

"Jack is the best" she teased, "I love how you have trouble with both our names" she laughed, "I make me laugh, Zachary makes me smile."

She said that and closed her eyes like people tasting chocolates in commercials do. An idea must've crossed her mind since she next pulled out her fountain pen and a notebook from her purse, wrote what she just said down and was lost in the paper.