Chapter 23: A Toy
August 22, 20—
12:28 P.M.
Chess Street
Tal couldn’t leave his bar to have lunch with me at a deli called Carpione’s on Chess Street. Therefore, I was having lunch alone, enjoying the shade, warm day, and succulent, bare-chested cowboys who passed on the sidewalk in front of me.
My lunch consisted of a tuna on rye, no cheese, lettuce, and tomato. I decided that an unsweetened iced tea was needed, although what I really wanted was a Long Island iced tea. Chess Street was butted against West Stockton College (WSC) and was occupied by a variety of young men to ogle while eating my meal. I studied handsome nerds, jocks of steel, and fraternity cuties. I don’t know which was more appealing, the tuna on rye or the exuberant show of Oklahoma men that passed in front of me.
