The Drawers of Lola Rosa

I can’t help but stare. The young waiter with curly dark hair and a pencil thin moustache is a dead ringer for my cousin, Paul, a mirror of his youthful days in the ’70’s. It’s uncanny.

Turns out he’s from B.C. (we’re getting closer), but not from Kamloops, home of Paul and my extended family. Do you know White Rock, he asks me. Do I know White Rock? I repeat, wide-eyed. I had a house in Ocean Park and two near the beach, and my mom still lives there. I reel off her address and he pauses, then his face lights up. His family lives on the cul-de-sac over, not a stone’s throw away.

Our waitress is also from B.C., but the restaurant has filled up and there’s no time to play “Six Degrees.” With a few spare minutes, no doubt, we could have found a connection.

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Fidgety, I slide open the small drawer on my side of the table and flip my son an astonished look. The drawer contains maybe fifty scraps of paper of varying sizes and shapes. Napkins, torn strips of foolscap, metro passes, ticket stubs, gum wrappers, and sticky notes are crumpled, rumpled, and stuffed inside. Every bit is a treasure with something in common: a handwritten message.

There are poems, wishes, insights, provocative comments and rants. They contain heartbreak, kindness, love, intelligence and plenty of low-brow humour. Dante’s drawer yields a similar stash.

We paper the table top and take turns reading out the craziest bits, howling, until our food arrives. Carefully, we return everything to its place.

The next time you’re in Montreal, look for me. I’ve left a photograph in the drawer of a two-person table on the right side of the room facing the kitchen.

Leave me something, too. I know I’ll be back.

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Lola Rosa Milton Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant                                           545 rue Milton, Montreal http://lola-rosa.ca  Tel: (514) 287-9337