Barack Obama

by Alex B. Fine

Part I

Barack Obama called me on a Thursday evening. It was around 9 pm and traffic was still settling and the sun had not yet set. I was not expecting the call.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Alex."
"Hey. Who's this?"
"Hey. This is Barack Obama."
It turned out the president was passing through Syracuse, attending to certain matters, and needed a place to stay. My roommate was out of town so it was not inconvenient.
"She won't mind me sleeping in her room?"
"Oh, not at all."
"I appreciate it, man."
"No sweat."
Obama got in fairly late that Sunday and had a little trouble finding parking on the street. I went down to meet him and teased him about his crooked parallel parking.
I had some leftover stir-fry which I offered to Barack Obama. He said he was fine because he had eaten a big bag of almonds on the road.
We sat up late, chatting and smoking. Barack Obama would come in from the balcony and go to the bathroom to wash his hands after each cigarette, which I also do a lot of the time. Finally, we got ready for bed.
"Goodnight, Barack."
"'Night. Oh, Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"I was gonna take a shower. Where can I find a towel?"
"Closet behind you."
He picked one of my roommate's nice white towels and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. I heard the bathroom fan start up and I didn't see him again until the next morning.

Part II

When I came out of my room, Barack Obama was already up, doing crunches on a towel in the living room. This was not the same towel he had used the night before, since that one was still wet. He had already made coffee.
"I didn't know whether you guys compost so I put the old grounds in the filter in the sink."
"We just toss them out."
"Cool", said Barack Obama, and then he did a few more crunches before going to take a shower and then joining me in the kitchen.
We both had cereal and read the paper. I gave Barack Obama the Arts section because I thought he'd like the article about Steve Reich, which I read while Barack showered.
"What was the name of the journalist he did the tribute to?", he asked.
"Daniel Pearl?"
"Yep", said Barack Obama, nodding and glancing back down at the paper.

Part III

After breakfast, Barack Obama thanked me for putting him up and said he'd text to see if I wanted to get lunch before he headed back to Washington, D. C., where he lived.
We both left the apartment at around 9:15 and I went to work. At around 2pm I went to get a coffee and discovered I'd missed Barack Obama's text because I don't always get reception in the building where I work.
"Sry I missed this! Dive safd and let me know if yr back this way soon!"