and Words
Out in the shiny night
The rain was softly falling
Tracks that ran down the boulevard
Had all been washed away
Out of the silver light
The past came softly calling
And I remember the times we spent
Inside the sad cafe
Oh it seemed like a holy place
Protected by amazing grace
We would sing right out loud
The things we could not say
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
After our move from the sunny island of Puerto Rico at the age of 10, I grew up on the southeastern coast of Florida. My childhood home sat about a 20-minute drive from the beaches of Fort Lauderdale. Having spent my entire life among palm trees and perpetual sun, I found little need to wander out onto the beaches. Early on, my life centered around my bicycle. As I grew older, video games filled my world.
On occasion, we would drive down to Miami to visit my father’s gravesite at a cemetery off Calle Ocho. For a while, we attended a Chinese Baptist Church in Miami, though that drive proved to be too long on each Sunday morning. However, we typically remained north of Miami. The southeast coast of Florida didn’t have a Chinatown where Chinese businesses clustered, like many other cities. Instead, they were scattered almost at random.