27. CULTISHNESS
We were sitting on the front steps of an old church eating pizza slices.
“You can’t even buy this in Italy,” he said, holding up the bottle in his hand, the label of which was green, red and white. “It’s actually locally made.”
There was a point being made about the deceptions of marketing and our naivety when it came to cultural consumption; but the third glass of beer was starting to kick in and caused my head to subtly spin.
Suddenly everything that was happening to me—and every thought that passed through my brain—seemed to be remarkable, was marked by the need to remember it, and yet it was also simultaneously, paradoxically, erased by the fast-pace at which all the thoughts were moving.
The pizza slices were done by the time an unhoused woman with a pug sporting a fur-lined cheetah-print coat settled down behind us. We’d noticed her arrival but did not acknowledge her presence and continued our conversation as if she wasn’t there.
“But then what do they drink in Italy,” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never been.”
“I have,” she said. “But I hadn’t paid attention.”
“You know,” the unhoused woman chimed in, “there is a cult that meets inside of the church once a week. I thought you should know.”
“Thank you,” I said, after a moment of silence.
We were not lonely enough to engage with a stranger and remain receptive to what they had to say, be kind in return, so when we tried to pick up our conversation where we’d left off, it felt like we were rendered incapable of speaking about what we wanted to speak about, since it was obvious she was listening in to see how we would proceed.
The awkwardness was unbearable, so we stood up to leave.
“I didn’t mean to scare you: I just wanted you to let you know about the cult.”
“You didn’t scare us,” he assured her.
“Have a good night,” I said.
Did the woman come here most nights and try to spread awareness about the cult to other unwilling participants, more often than not scaring away similar suburbanites who just wanted a superficial taste for the city life?
“I wanted to know more about the cult,” she said, far enough away.
“There is no cult,” he said. “But I heard they have a lot in Italy.”
