January 16, 2019

All three of us have been living alone in different parts of Bushwick for about a year. Jane escaped from an abusive marriage in a Hasidic community. Mary defected from an Amish community. And, I moved from Japan because my marijuana habit was getting too expensive. We have nothing in common except for the fact that we were all individually charmed by this woman who was inviting random people off the street to come listen to her talk on how to start a new life. One evening, we walked into an empty storefront space with a bunch of folding chairs. There were about 100 people in the audience. Omnia, the lady who charmed us, explained her method. Here is the gist of it.

To start a new life, she said, you need a new community. You don’t need friends or lovers. Just a group of people who mutually care about each other. She said 3 would work just fine. 4 would be too hard to coordinate and 2 is not a community. She then randomly grouped us into trios. Jane and Mary just happened to be sitting near me. We are to meet once a week, and report to each other what is happening in our lives and how we are feeling. We are never to meet or speak to each other outside of these weekly meetings. Once a month, we will come back to this space for Omnia’s talk. That’s the format. 3 of us exchanged our email addresses and went home.

Next day, I emailed Mary and Jane asking them where to meet. Because our backgrounds are very different, pizza was the only food we can agree on. I looked for a pizza restaurant with enough space for us to comfortably sit and talk; that’s how we ended up here. Our first meeting was awkward but I felt good afterward knowing that I have a group of people committed to caring about each other.

To be continued... (not really)

#fiction #pizza #bushwick #brooklyneats