The Italian restaurant³⁶

Yesterday I went to an Italian restaurant with Pahar and Tejiyan. The owner recognised me from the newspapers and showed me such respect. He didn’t speak English, and Pahar’s Spanish was really something! So we could not understand each other.

I asked for coffee with milk. He could not understand, and gave me coffee without milk. So Pahar and Tejiyan went outside and bought milk from a store. They said, “Leche,” but their pronunciation! When the owner saw our milk he grabbed it and said, “No good!” Then he brought warm milk for the coffee.

The music was so loud! We said, “Can you not turn it down?” Then his worker went and turned it down. The owner came to our table two or three times to ask if the food was good. Then he kept staring at me; he was so curious! He couldn’t speak to us and we couldn’t speak to him, but he was so happy to have us in his restaurant.