ARUSH

I have the three food containers in my hand, balancing them precariously so I can make sure I have my key and am able to shut the door behind me.

Julian helped me prepare some food from home.

We made some pani puri with some sauces, biryani, and some gujhia for dessert.

I also have a whole big thermos of mango lassi as well as some ingredients to mix up more if I need to.

Julian added his favorite fried chicken and collards for us, too.

I’m excited to try his favorite foods, though I wish he was here when I did.

He spends so much time making food from my culture to make sure I’m comfortable that he rarely makes what he likes.

“Do you need some help?” Paul calls down the hall as I step outside my door.

“I got it,” I call back. The door clicks shut behind me and I push on it to make sure it’s latched.

Julian has an early game today, at three. Ellie and Paul invited me over for tea and to watch the game. Somehow it turned into a potluck of different meals, and Julian agreed to help me cook them in preparation.

And by help me cook , I mean he cooked them and I primarily got in the way from time to time.

As I’m passing the elevator, the doors open and Skylar jumps out with her parents behind her. “Hiya, Mr. Arush, the esteemed zjohadrr! Where ya headed with all those things that smell good?”

I give her parents a smile and look back at her. She’s taller than I thought she was. And her hair is blue. Was it blue when she stuck her head over the privacy wall on the balcony last month?

“Just there,” I tell her, nodding in the direction of Paul standing in the open door to his condo.

“Are you feeding them?” she asks, waving at the older man just as Ellie steps into the doorway.

“We’re watching Julian’s game.”

“Oh,” she says, and I see her shoulders sag. “Well… have fun.”

“Would you care to join us?” Ellie asks, stepping into the hall toward us.

Skylar’s entire face lights up. “Mean it?”

I grin, nodding. “Sure. There’s plenty of food.”

“Are you sure?” Skylar’s father asks.

“Definitely,” Ellie confirms, and holds out her hand for Skylar. “Come on, lassie.”

“Hold on,” Skylar’s mother says, grabbing her arm and giving her the paper bag she was carrying. “You’re not allowed to leave the condo without my permission. Understand?”

“Yes, Mom,” she says and skips her way down the hall toward Ellie. I think she was just given their lunch or something.

“If she gets to be too much, you can send her home,” Skylar’s mother says.

I shake my head. “She’s not too much, ma’am.”

“Bernie,” she tells me and then touches Skylar’s father’s arm. “Leonard.”

“Hi. I’m Arush. I live next door with the hockey player who’s hardly ever here.”

Leonard chuckles. “Thank you for befriending our daughter. She enjoys your company more than you can ever know.”

“I enjoy her company too,” I assure them.

Skylar pokes her head into the hallway. “Come on, zjohadrr. Amoosh, amoosh.”

“I think that means hurry up,” Bernie says.

I bow my head and continue toward Paul in the doorway. Skylar takes the top two containers from me, and Ellie takes the last. That leaves me with the thermos of lassi slung over my back. It’s probably a good thing we have more ingredients for refills.

There are take-out containers I assume came from Skylar alongside open platters of food, and my containers are all on the table now, too. “We’re having root beer floats later,” Skylar says as she opens one of the containers. “Wow, this looks scrumptious.”

“I also brought lassis,” I say and place the thermos on the table.

She eyes it and says, “A drink?”

“Yes. You’ll like it. It’s mango and delicious. Julian’s mastered it for sure.”

Ellie adds another tray to the table. They’re these big things that have built in sections for food. I kind of love everything about them.

Skylar goes over the different things that she brought. I explain mine and then Ellie tells us the foods she’s prepared. It’s a hodgepodge of different cuisines since Skylar and her parents seem to have stopped for Italian and Ellie made traditional pub food, from what Paul says.

We each take some of everything. With trays piled high, we head into the living room, where there are now four small folding tables set up around the room in front of the couch with their television on the game channel.

“Should we have lassis first or floats?” Ellie asks.

“Lassis,” Skylar says. “I think floats should be for the dessert round.”

“Sounds good. I’ll bring in some glasses.”

It isn’t long before we’re gathered around the television and watching the two teams warm up on the ice. Chicago is playing the Nashville Stingers.

“Which one is Julian?” Skylar asks.

“He’s number sixty-four on the blue team,” I answer. “Skating around the goalie right now.” Just as I say that, the camera cuts away from the ice and back to the guys talking. I shake my head. No one needs to see them to listen to their words.

“Have you been to a game in person yet?” she asks.

I shake my head. “I’m going to their next game against Carolina in two days.”

Skylar’s face lights up. “That’s awesome. I’ll need a report of what it’s like to be there.”

“Absolutely.”

The team files off the ice, except for the starting players, as the national anthem is performed by some man with a wonderful singing voice. It’s almost hypnotic.

Then we’re watching the main event. It starts out much better than many previous games. There’s some coordination going on. There’s even some passing of the puck going on. We make it through the first eight minutes without a penalty call. Hooking. Two minutes for our team. I sigh.

“What’s that mean?” Skylar asks. She mimics the hand movements of the ref.

“That’s the hand signal for the penalty,” I explain. “They called it hooking, which I think has something to do with one of the players using their stick against another.”

She frowns. “Total yrnth.”

Paul nods solemnly. I might not have guessed that Paul and Ellie knew Skylar and her parents, but then again, I’ve gathered from both that they’ve lived in the building for quite some time.

Ellie makes a point of knowing her neighbors and everyone else in the building.

It certainly appears that they’re familiar with each other.

We’re all on the edge of our seats whenever Julian gets the puck. He makes many attempts at goal, and when they call one not a goal, I think it’s a mistake. But the very next play, he makes one that can’t be contested.

It’s a good feeling, cheering with other people around. Our excitement vibrates through the air as we whoop and holler. It makes the celebration all the more fun when you can share it with someone else.

I send Julian a text, telling him I’m so proud of him and that we screamed for a solid minute.

Shortly after, the game went to intermission with a score of 2-1, Nashville.

“They have plenty of time to catch up,” Paul says.

“And we have plenty of time to refill our plates,” Ellie adds.

“Yes!” Skylar jumps to her feet, and we follow her back into the dining room. “I love all of this. Everything is amazing. My parents have taken me to get Indian food before, but it’s nothing like this.”

“Either it’s not authentic or they have a different style,” I tell her. “Different regions of India cook the same dish, but slightly differently.”

“Ohh, I didn’t know that.”

“It’s like American barbecue,” Paul says. “The south, the north, the east, and the west—everyone has a different style and they all say theirs is the best when really, it’s all about your palate and what you like.”

“And what you grew up with,” I say.

“There’s a Pakistani girl who just moved in on the third floor,” Ellie says. “She sometimes opens a form to order food boxes, and she’ll make you a meal. We had our first one the other day, and it was amazing!”

“Really?” Skylar asks. “How do you know that?”

“There’s a flyer on the community board in the lobby,” she says, grinning. “You learn a lot when you read the bulletins posted on the community board.”

“Huh. I’ll make sure my mom looks so we can order next time.”

I nod. “I’ll see if Julian wants to as well. That sounds good.”

“She’s a wonderful young lady. Very beautiful. Very quiet. She’s here as a student. We talked to her for a while when we picked up our food boxes. She does so with permission from the condo board, and this way she can earn money between her studies,” Paul says.

“She has a family in Pakistan,” Ellie says and leans forward like she’s going to tell us a secret. “A husband and young daughter.”

Skylar looks at me with wide eyes. I’m pretty convinced she’s exaggerating her expression for Ellie’s benefit. “Really?” she asks as she picks up her tray to return to the living room. “Darnsh flah!”

“What does that mean?” Ellie whispers as Skylar disappears.

I shrug. “No idea. I pick up context cues from her tone and the conversation most of the time. Disbelief, maybe?”

We join Skylar again with twelve minutes left in the break.

“There are three condos open on the second floor,” Ellie tells us as we take our seats again.

“That’s a lot for one floor,” Skylar says, her eyebrows puckered. “Why do you think they’re open?”

I can tell that Ellie is enjoying someone taking a keen interest in what she knows about the people in the building. Skylar is always inquisitive. Her mind is always moving. Constantly asking questions.

“The remaining family there has four teenage boys,” Ellie says. “It’s only speculation, but maybe they’re loud. Sloppy. Slamming doors. In and out at all hours of the day and night.”

“Have you met them?” Skylar asks.

“I’ve met two of them. They seem like rather good children. Very polite. Quick to offer smiles.”

“One even offered to take the bags we were carrying for us,” Paul adds. “Strapping young men.”

“It doesn’t sound like they’re bad neighbors then,” I say.

Ellie shakes her head. “I agree. But I’ve only met two of the four. Maybe the other half makes up for the good behavior of those two with bad behavior.” She leans forward again and murmurs, “Maybe they’re involved in gang violence.”

“Ellie,” Paul chides. “Let’s not go suggesting things we don’t have a smidgen of proof about.”

Ellie clucks her tongue. “Very well. But it’s a very strange situation on the second floor.”

“Oh,” Skylar says. “One of the families had a little kid. She was seven or eight. We used to play outside together sometimes. I didn’t know they were gone.”

“I hear they moved out months ago.”

“That’s sad. There aren’t a lot of kids in the building,” Skylar says.

“That might have to do with someone ,” Ellie says, giving me a pointed look. “That someone brought in not just one, but two people for their… deals.”

I’m guessing she’s referring to Sally. Which means Ellie witnessed her maybe hooking up in a threesome. I try to keep my grin to myself and nod understandingly. Would they really care if they knew Sally was a sex worker? Something tells me they’ll take even more interest in her activities.

“My mom let me hang out in the gym with the guys on four—do you know them?” Skylar asks. “Tobias and James. They’re really cool. They know the way of the ashiknak, too.” She inclines her head and then takes a long sip of her lassi.

“I do know them,” Ellie says while I’m nodding. “I think they’re secretly in love.”

“With whom?” Skylar asks, eyes widening.

“Each other, of course,” Ellie says.

“Ohhhh,” Skylar squeals. “That’s so cute!”

I grin. Ellie and Paul exchange a smile, very clearly agreeing.

“And on the eighth floor, the young couple, Darius and Asia, are expecting their first baby,” Paul says, proving that he gets in on the gossip as much as Ellie does.

“She has the most adorable little bump,” Ellie says. “I’m knitting her an afghan.”

“Yes!” Skylar says. “Another kid in the building.”

“They’ll be too young to play with for quite some time, but it’ll definitely be nice to see some young children around,” Ellie agrees.

“Do you know what happened to the weird guy on the top floor? The one who dresses like a spaceman?” Skylar asks. “I used to see him all the time and now he’s gone. Maybe he returned to ragnninggok.” She shrugs.

“Do you mean Mr. Maples?” Paul asks.

“The one who always wore shiny one-piece suits,” Skylar says. “Like space pajamas.”

This is like being in the audience for a show. I have no idea who these people are. I’d never be able to pick them out in a crowd. But I’m about to know little tidbits about everyone’s lives.

“Yes, that’s Mr. Maples,” Paul says. “He has condos all over Chicago. I think he’s just staying in another one.”

Skylar frowns. “Why would you have multiple homes in one city? That seems frivolous.”

I nod, agreeing. It does seem like an extravagant waste of money.

Ellie and Paul shrug.

“I hear he owns stock in a ton of big-paying companies or something,” Ellie says. “When you have money, why not be extravagant?”

“I can think of lots of things to do with a lot of money that aren’t redundant purchases,” Skylar says. “Like traveling to the ornicorn belt or hiking the smarglin climb.” She rolls her eyes.

“Or journeying to catch a flargish borm,” I offer.

Skylar nods, waving her hand at me as if saying, ‘ See? He gets it. ’

I smile as Ellie looks between the two of us with confusion. The whistle on the television announces that the game has begun while we were talking. Paul turns the television up again so we can hear what’s going on.

This has been one of my favorite afternoon hockey matches to date. And we still have two more periods and desserts to get through, as well as an entire building of people to learn about. I’m here for this.

Even better, this game is a home game, which means Julian will be home in a few hours and there’s simply no better way to spend an evening than with him. I can’t wait to hold him again. My heart is already beating harder just thinking about it.