Pets

A man with long gray hair is waiting for the light to change. He holds a leash attached to which is a squat, fat dog with wispy white hair. The traffic stops and we pass each other in the middle of the street and I see that it’s not a dog at all but a pig.

Later that day, a guy wearing a Pug Lives Matter t-shirt walks past me. A little ways beyond is the World's Blandest Taproom, all concrete and metal piping. A group of people sit outside, each one of them with a small dog curled in their lap, one of which is indeed a pug.

A few doors down is my destination.The Soop does not serve soup. It's a little confusing. "Soop" is apparently how you pronounce the Korean word for "forest," and the place does resemble a sort of forest, as the windows are filled with the plants they use in their dishes, growing in hydroponic rows under eerily glowing lights.

I sit outside and slurp my glass noodles as the traffic rushes past. A man clutching a bottle in a paper bag screams at a young woman as she calmly chains up her bike. A troupe of homeless kids are dragged along by their pit bulls. A man goes into the restaurant and emerges a few minutes later with no food. His walk is something between a strut and a scurry. Ten minutes later he's back, lugging some shopping bags, a live python twisted around his neck. He goes back in and immediately leaves, strutting and scurrying, a wide grin on his face. 

The owner comes out to take my plates and we chat a bit. I tell him how good the meal was and that I hope he can stay open in such a challenging location. The man with the snake passes by again, face gnarled with rage. "It's very odd," the owner says, horns blaring over his shoulder. "We were not aware."