A fella greeted me from behind the counter. He said “I can’t run the register but I can go ahead and make your food. What are you getting?”

I don’t eat out much in Ketchikan because there aren’t a lot of options and I don’t want to pay for it. Groceries are a pretty penny as it is! Sometimes I make exceptions. Soon I will be in Guatemala eating refried beans forever, so I thought: “what the heck/”

He fired up my 2-piece cod Fish ‘N Chips.

Somehow plans for the future came up. I think I asked him if he lived here year-round (the equivalent of a handshake here).

He said he was moving to Zimbabwe to be a drummer in a band.

I said “So you’re a hippie right? Like, you don’t have health insurance or anything?”

He shook his head ‘no’ in the style of “I am not worried about health, insurance, or health insurance.”

I love how no health insurance = hippie, in my mind? I guess that I’m a hippie then.

So he asked me about Peace Corps. I told him about Guatemala. Short chat, but it was a good one.

I saw him working on the dock the next day, thought I recognized him. When someone tells you they are going to be a Drummer in Zimbabwe, you study them a certain way. You cock your head to one side like a puppy, if only mentally and just for a moment. I asked if he had two jobs. I actually find a lot of people work two jobs here during the summer. I would be miserable because the early mornings are enough to ask, and to do this and another job seems wild.

But drumming in Zimbabwe? I’d like to do that.

Does Alaska attract Drummers In Zimbabwe or do Drummers In Zimbabwe attract Alaska?

My fish n’ chips were delightful.