Half a kitchen

The landlord drew the line down the middle of the kitchen with blue painter’s tape. Nia got the left burners and the window. Andre got the right burners and the door to the alley. They split the walk-in cooler shelf by shelf, and by the end of the first week both of them had labeled every shelf in permanent marker.

Nia cooked the food her grandmother cooked on Edisto Island: red rice, okra soup, shrimp and grits that tasted like the tide came in. Andre cooked griot and pikliz and a black mushroom rice his father made on Sundays in Little Haiti. The smell of the two kitchens met in the middle over the tape and argued there too.