Nicholas Lai

To Alicia

Alicia, Do you remember how it was before things fell apart? How we had a car, and a house five blocks from downtown, and we thought that we were the richest people in the world? How the streets had been paved and not cracked, and how when you walked out the door you could hug your neighbors, and they’d beam at you in the most wonderful way before you left for work? How Ms. Dee’s freshly baked bread smelled on a winter morning, and you could buy extra knowing you’d have a home to tuck it away in? How the heart of town used to bustle with people on a warm afternoon, how we could just saunter up to the ice cream parlor and talk to old Jim, who would tell us stories of traveling abroad to faraway countries like Japan and France and India? How we used to talk about traveling to those countries before settling into our careers, back when a career meant something? How young and naive we were. How foolish, I guess.