Hardcore

by Linda Sanchez

I’m doing food math in my head while my husband talks about Dan Carlin’s latest Hardcore History podcast: the brussels sprouts are long gone, but if I can divide each of the remaining ravioli on my plate into four segments, that will give me twelve more bites. If I chew each one slowly and mindfully, I can stretch my dinner to last as long as his, and despite decades of miscalculations and false confidence, I assure myself it’s simple and doable. He’s telling me that some believe Cleopatra may have been Black, but she was actually Greek, when I glance at his plate: more than half his sprouts and at least four ravioli left. I already know he’ll end up putting his leftovers in a Pyrex and happily microwaving them for lunch tomorrow, which flames a squint-eyed ray of awe and envy right through me. While he assures me that Egypt had its fair share of Black pharaohs, although Cleopatra was not one of them, I stab one of the raviolis on my plate and pop it, whole, into my mouth. Then the other two.

6S

Linda Sanchez is a writer, teacher, alchemist and entrepreneur. When not scribbling memoir fragments, she conducts howling concertos for neighborhood dogs and puts her spices in alphabetical order. Linda lives in relative obscurity with her husband and beloved dogs, most often in a state of bliss. You can find out what makes her tick here.