"Hey - me, Jen and Laura are hanging out on the porch over on St.Marks, want to come by and hang for a bit?" Anjoli asked over the phone. The playful lilt in her voice made me smile. The porch had become a safe haven for the girls to get together while everyone was still stir crazy from the last few months of being locked down inside their homes during those early moments of the Covid Pandemic. It was a weird time of collective confusion, mild panic and abrupt change. We were all adjusting, and desperate to re-socialize and be outside. The warm summer weather brought new courage and the undeniable desire to be with each other again. It had been months now since my rendezvous with Anjoli at the coupe. Shortly after that night, the lockdown happened and momentum everywhere came to a stop. I had asked Laura on a date to go dancing at a swing club in Manhattan before the lockdown. As friends who were used to dancing together already, I thought it was an innocent enough invitation. It really didn't need to mean anything other than two open-minded friends going out to have fun together. As soon as our date was confirmed the lockdown headlines began and we never got to go. Months passed in homebound isolation before I got the call from Anjoli that afternoon. After the call, I changed into this new short sleeve button down shirt I got at a second hand store in Brooklyn. It was army green with streaks of paint printed on it. I slipped my bare feet into beige boat shoes and grabbed my wooden skin drum by its rawhide strap. I slung it over my shoulder and began my march to St.Marks place. The sky was blue and endless. The different houses I passed either had their lawns lined with stiff colorful tulips or messy bunches of flowery impatients. There was both color and fragrance in the air. The north shore of Staten Island was filled with old victorian homes, gothic churches and small green spaces tucked inside the urban clutter. A large clock tower loomed over St.Marks Place. It was part of St Peter's Cathedral, a famous landmark known for its neo-gothic architecture. Everything was more quirky and historical near St.George. The schoolyards painted with murals, the homes varied with eclectic craftsmanship and the community present in small businesses and political activism. As I approached the porch I started drumming and settled into a rhythmic cadence with the pace of my footsteps. The girls were lounging on the porch drinking ice tea in glass cups. Laura had just moved in with Jen at the start of the pandemic and Anjoli lived with her sister around the corner. The three of them were rehearsing for their performance at Snug Harbor in the coming weeks called Porch Plays. The neighborhood highschool was across the street where class had just ended and an army of backpacks and blue facemasks filed out from the front doors. The bustle of voices sounded muted behind the clear pattering of the drum. "Vikram!" Anjoli shouted over the noise as I approached the steps. Vikram was my indian nickname her and her sister had given me. Jen wore large round glasses above a horseshoe barbell nose ring. She dyed the tips of her hair in teal and wore large platform boots. Laura was sitting cross legged next to her with flushed cheeks beneath her brown buttery curls. She wore flip flops and jean shorts. After a bit of chitchat Anjoli disappeared into the house with Jen to 'make snacks'. Meanwhile they left Laura and I together on the porch for our long awaited 'vibe-check'. Laura and I were hardly strangers, we had known each other for over ten years but this time was different. It was the first time we engaged with each other with more romantic sub-text. I felt relaxed and at ease as our conversation flowed from one topic to another. It didn't seem to matter what we were talking about or who was saying what, she spoke with passion about the things that made her happy, while more poetic thoughts caused her to sigh with weakened knees and a deep satisfying smile. I watched her gaze float to the corner of her eye as she told me some stories of her time abroad in Chile, high school marching band hijinks and the time she stepped foot in the Ganges river. "I didn't realize how much I was holding onto that I needed to let go of...and the river just took it...what about you? Where was the last place you traveled to?" She looked at me with her big brown eyes that comforted something deep inside me. Anjoli and Jen had disappeared for a while by now while Laura and I were meeting for what seemed to be the first time. Everything inside myself felt easy, free and spacious. "Hey, I started playing guitar, you should come over some time and we can try singing some songs together." I suggested playfully. "Sure, that sounds fun." Laura accepted my invitation as she leaned back flustered and delighted with surprise. "Great, let's talk soon." I grabbed my drum and played a fun little roll that Laura boogied to playfully. I walked back home under that same endless blue sky but with a new feeling of grace by my side. While my mind was still trying to make Laura make sense to my heart, a foreign feeling of home had emerged.