enzyme@dinner

by HAZEL KAHAN

This entire story takes place during one evening at Seachange, a San Francisco restaurant. It is a small, elegant place, high above the ocean, peopled apparently by just a few guests, the restaurant owner, a waiter, bartender and maitre d'. As if we are witnessing a stage performance, this novella lifts the curtains on one surface after another to show a room that is actually crowded with invisible others who have, in one way or another, wittingly or not, conspired to bring these people together to the same place at the same time. "When we enter a room," the story suggests, "we bring with us a bit of all the people we have ever known."