Dinner

I guess I'll go into the city this evening and have myself another Cajun boil with shrimp. They know my order there. It's almost always the same. The owner, who also tends the bar, sometimes comes over to make small talk. A Chinese family business. They work hard. It's the closest thing I have to a routine, going there just about once a week. 

A Mai Tai and a Modelo. Shrimp, boiled potatoes and a piece of an ear of corn in the house's Special Juicy sauce, medium spice, please. Sometimes, if I'm hungry, I'll add sausage too. 

Families eat there. Couples. Birthday parties. Dates. Once I got a little drunk and paid for a young couple's meal on the sly. They had a baby of about two with them who executed some of the most piercing cries I've ever heard. 

I don't know if anybody thinks anything about me always eating there alone, but I feel kind of free.