NOSTALGIA

- You are a big girl.
- I don't wanna say anything about your mother.
- You've gotta say it.
- She's abusive.
- I would say that sounds clichéd.
- Extremely abusive.

Her body gets tensed, then relaxed. Her eyes transfixed. She's talking ancient story. I've heard stories from others, but never from her. About how she started the gang three years ago. And how for years they ran a certain part of this shitty city. She was there before Giuliani -the Great Emperor- began the war against mafia and crime.

A young man, about 23, with a shaved head, crouches beside her. He looks confused. Gigi is drawing a diagram for her on the ripped back of a pizza box. "Ra, this is the building, this is the apartment."

She tells him she's not smoking. "You know I stopped all that shit."