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The Indian restaurant ound up in was half a mile from the hospital, tucked into one of those odd warrens of half-residential, half-co up all over San Francisco Every neighborhood had its own character, a ht of theh they’d been living there for longer than I’d been alive On such blends are cities built

Nathan took a sip of his oat curry I leaned over and poked him in the arm with my fork He looked up, startled

"What?"

"We’re supposed to be having lunch together, but I don’t knohere you are," I said "What’s on yourdown his lassi, he reached up and adjusted his glasses--a sure sign that he was uncomfortable "Did you know that curry powder is a natural antiparasitic? That’s probably part of why it was originally so popular in Indian cuisine India has a warh levels of parasitism, and the more parasites you have, the more ways you’ll need to keep the you want to have a healthy population, that is"

"And it’s not until recently that we’ve been put into the position of needing to add parasites for the sake of our health, rather than getting rid of thes like that every time you don’t want to talk about what’s really on yourI was never enthusiastic about developing a taste for sushi I think you’d get us kicked out of any sushi restaurant worth visiting"

"Just because people don’t want to consider the risks inherent in their food choices--"

"Nathan, what’s wrong? You don’t usually try to change the subject twice in oneheavily "If I say you really don’t want to know, Sal, will you believe me?"

"Yes, but I won’t stop asking" I poked hiain This time the action earned irlfriend if I didn’t make you tellwith Syh I can listen to you"

"It’s about what happened last night"

The words were siuts, where it curled and twisted like a parasite in its own right Last night he’d been dealing with an accident I hated hearing about accidents… but this was Nathan, and he deserved better than irl," I said "I can handle it"

He sighed again This ti them on the tail of his shirt as he said, "It was a nine-car pile-up on the Bay Bridge The people whoat all Onewas jackknifing to block all four lanes of traffic, and cars were sla into it before they had a chance to realize as about to happen to theet to the scene"