and then our exile

Verbatim.

Doing laundry, i hear the door close, E. mumble "Assalamu'alaikum".
i mumble "wa'alaikumussalam" back, and a little later ask
-did you eat?
--i quote unquote /ate/, but i did bring back some biscuits that'd be good with tea.
-they're probably made of tofu. let me see the list of ingredients. ... cocoa. soy lecithin. tofu---oh, oh, look at that.
--go make us some tea.
-meh. what kind of tea do you want?
--steak.
-why are you always talking about steak? you're always talking about steak.
--it's just because you don't have real steak in Canada.
-actually, Alberta beef is famed.
--except it's made out of moose.
-...thanks. actually, Alberta's Canada's equivalent of Texas.
--oh really? you're all down South there in the up North and everyone's all...cool?
-and we're all Mexican too, you mean.