“I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK!” they’ll croon. And hug you. You nod and smile, because that’s what you do. Who are these people? Why are they so glad?

“Was it amazing?” they’ll ask. Yeah, you say. Yes. They’ll nod vigorously, light filling their eyes. They’ll wait for you to carry on. This hummus is excellent, you announce, after some time. They’ll agree. They have to, it’s good hummus.

MEESH-MEESH WAS THE STORY of Passover. When he arrived he looked lost and eagerly filled the seats that'd been vacated across from of us. “My last Seder was in Nepal,” he said. How was that? we asked. He smiled and placed a self-mixed bottle of vodka and tang on the table. He had bright and gentle eyes and a feather in his hat and a hop in his step, one could see even as he sat. “I was born in '69.” he told us. Heard that was quite the summer!  “But I was born in winter...

GABRIEL HAD MOST OF HIS BIKE. “You're missing a training wheel!” No, he shot back. Hay dos ruedas. And in a burst of juvenile brawn he swung the bike up onto its back tire and counted aloud. Uno, dos. “But the other rueda pequeña–it's gone.” No!  he insisted. Tengo dos. All grins, this five-year-old.

DANGER around every corner, they warn. Scorpions and disease, landslides and string-rays, ladrones and murderers, lava and corruption. Sunlight!

“Don't go up there! You'll be robbed.”
“Up there? But that's where I came from. It's beautiful. So peaceful.”
“Burglars. They'll take your things, traveler.”
“But I carry nothing, look at me!”

I loved nothing more in those days than seeing Amherst through the eyes of outsiders. I'd bring my worlds together, old and new, and watch them collide and dance in what was always a wildly-entertaining and insightful ballet of social dynamics, raw and unscripted. It was a hobby I'd developed, almost an obsession, reserved for the worthy few fortunate enough to get the invite. A damn fine way, I'd found, to get some perspective on where I came from. And in turn, who I was.

"Come see Amherst," I'd say, when I was ready. When they were ready. "You'll like it."