Coffee Roy’s except the framework skeleton underneath.
“So how come you never go back to Ethiopia?” Bennie asked Roy
as they taped flyers to the wall beside the restaurant.
“There’s nothing there for me, Ben.”
“You got no family there? It’s a big country. You must have some
family.”
“My parents were orphaned during the Italian invasion in the
‘30s. My mother died while giving birth to me and my father died of
cancer. I don’t know of any family I have there. Anyway, all the
Falasha, the Ethiopian Jews, were airlifted to Israel in the 80s. If I
have any relatives, they would be there. But my father didn’t even
know his parents’ names. Except for you guys, I don’t have any family
at all.”
“You can have some of mine,” Bennie said, “I got too much. They
write me every week asking for money.”
A Hasidic Jew walked up and startled them, causing Bennie to
nearly drop the stack of flyers. “Denastelen!” he said to Roy.
“Denaneh?”
“Dena, Denaneh?” Roy replied.
“Dena. Dena. Denaneh?” said the Hasid.
“Dena. Denaneh?” repeated Roy.
“Dena! Denaneh?” the Hasid replied.
This went on for what seemed to Bennie an absurdly long period
of time. Basically the two men were greeting each other in the
Ethiopian language something to the effect of “How are you?” “I’m
fine, how are you?” “Fine. How are you?” “Just fine. How are you?”
“Very fine. How about you?” Ethiopians meeting on the street would
often continue in this fashion until both were late for their
appointments. Fairfax, oddly enough, was a center for both
Ethiopians and Orthodox Jews, and they were very civil to each
other, even dabbling in the other’s vernacular. Finally, Roy
interjected with a “Shalom.”
“Shalom,” answered the Jew.
“Can I help you?” said Roy.
“Oh, yes. Sorry. Just wondering what you’re advertising there.
You know you’re not supposed to be posting bills. We’ve got to keep
things looking groovy around here.”
“Groovy?” Roy asked, unsure he had heard correctly.
“Yes. You know,” said the man, “’The street is the river of life of
the city.’ William Whyte said that. We don’t want to pollute our
ABYSSINIA
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