“Sorry. My mother can’t find you a European bride.”

I was speaking with the Manager of the Ethiopian hotel down the corner from work. I go there at lunchtime sometimes to eat. We’d begun talking a few weeks ago, after I’d asked for one of the Ethiopian dishes on the menu. It arrived without cutlery, leaving my Virgo soul offended to the very core. He passed over a spoon, when he saw the waitress observing my anguish without budging. In the ensuing conversation, he explained he was Eritrean, married [...]