21. Milan
Where are you from?
A response I’ve workshopped: Do you mean where do I live or where was I born?
Her question, gentle. Genuinely curious. Me, someone who travels a lot, who has always lived in cities filled with people not from that city. One thing about travel is you learn not everyone is like you, not even a little, and yet everyone is like you, quite profoundly.
Where were you born, she says, her mum behind her speaking quietly in Italian. The whole time, like a gentle wash over the store.
I carry records over to her which she adds to the queue. We stand around chatting, from Canada and Lebanon and South Africa, listening to Italo disco and breathing the smell of new wood.