“My blood was pumping. I was sitting there and my heart was racing. I was thinking, ‘What am I doing? What do I think I’m doing here like this? Have I lost my mind?’” She was across the street when she saw him standing in front of the Avon Cinema on Thayer Street. After getting […]
If you start walking toward downtown from The Scurvy Dog, you’ll go right by his house. “She took me home from the bar, but I lived in the opposite direction back then. I lived with three guys on Valley Street. Four times she told me her name and four times I said it back to […]
“I have no idea what she does for a living.” We’re sitting on her couch. It’s a couch in a living room in an apartment on America Street on the west side of Providence. The living room doesn’t have much in it aside from the couch, but there’s an Amy Winehouse poster on the wall […]
“My wife used to love Bruce. All she’d play is Bruce. Let me tell you, Bruce Springsteen ever showed up at the door, I was out, boy. I was a goner.” He lives in Wayland Square within walking distance of Books on the Square and Red Stripe. Currently, he’s the father of four and the […]
“I had the worst temper of anyone I’d ever met. That was before I went back to holding people. My life was really missing connection and intimacy, and allowing myself to reclaim that just cleared so much up.” For her, “holding” is exactly what it sounds like. She invites people over to her apartment — […]
“I think if 10 people show up, I’ll be happy.” He invited closer to 30. “Ten would be nice, but even if one person shows up, I’m going to be really happy about it.” He’s the guy throwing the party. “I sent out those dumb emails with the cartoons that say ‘Please Come to This’ […]
“He’s what I need to give up. Just him. Him and I’m good.” She tells me that for the New Year, she’s changing the locks and deleting his number from her phone. The house they shared on Gano Street is a little quieter than it used to be since he got an apartment in Warwick. […]
“The last time she was here, it felt forced. It felt like we were trying too hard. I know I felt that way, but I still wanted to try. This year, her kid’s in — I think he’s in Italy or something. He’s traveling. She was just going to sit at home. I said, ‘Why […]
“He knows it’s my reindeer. Let him say whatever he wants, but he knows damn well that reindeer is mine.” I got a tip that there was a custody battle brewing on Blackstone Boulevard between two septuagenarians over a decorative subarctic mammal. Like something out of Dickens, the story begins in two houses, both facing […]
“There’s a system for the books. I don’t know what it is, but — I look at a book and I know where it belongs — on what shelf. It’s a feeling you get looking at it.” The books are everywhere. He makes sure I finish my coffee and then makes me another cup while […]