He waved us in from behind the window, motioned for us to come in and held out a plate with salad and potatoes and round bread filled with meat.
“Today’s special! You get this and a drink,” he said.
The place was tiny, the back half of what obviously used to be a single restaurant, the other half now a burger joint facing the street. We hadn’t noticed it until we drove into the parking lot.
We both ordered the special, and couple that owned the place set about preparing our food while their three year old son wandered around the tiny space and his sister sat in a stroller with a bottle of water in her mouth.
We sat at one of the two tables, and I started smiling at the boy. He had long, dark curly hair and round brown eyes with long eye lashes.
“What’s his name?” I asked his mother, watching him run around.
“Leon,” she said. “It means lion in French.”
He walked up beside her and looked up at us from behind the counter.
“Hi Leon,” I said and winked.
He squinted both eyes, trying out a wink on his own.
“Almost,” I said. “One eye at a time. Like this.” And I winked an exaggerated one-eyed wink.
He winked back.
“That’s it!” I said. “Now try the other eye.” And I showed him.
He squinted and blinked both eyes, his facial muscles contorting and his lower lip sticking out from the effort.
Our shawarma arrived. It was hot and delicious and almost too much food to eat. But, you know, somehow we managed. And the store got very busy. And the little girl sat in her stroller, letting with water running down her front. And Leon ran back and forth, trying out a wink each time he passed our table.
When we finished, we got up to wash our hands in the sink behind a curtain against the back wall and then thanked the owners for the meal and said goodbye.
“Goodbye!” Leon said from behind his mother, and he peered out and winked a perfect wink.
“There he goes again. Where does he get that.”
“Get what?”
“That winking. Where did he learn that winking?”
“Don’t you remember that man and his wife last summer? They came from Texas and talked to Leon and taught him to wink.”
“Ah yes. That man and his wife last summer. He has never been the same.”