Arturo gazes out the windows of Compensal Cubano, the diner he and his temporary uncle are looking after while their elderly relative recovers from his heart attack in Havana. Aromas from the kitchen are tantalizing his senses with the eatery’s signature dish, sopa de pollo—soup brimming with chicken, potatoes, green onions, plantain, and yucca, and spiced up with cilantro, cumin, and lemon—that the short but strangely blonde Angel Rocco, now known as Raul Rodrigues, is tending to in the back.
Compensal Cubanosopa de polloArturo’s mouth waters while he clears tables; he realizes he hasn’t eaten in hours. It’s four in the afternoon. Being in a physical body again instead of his spiritual one, he has the incredible sensations of hot and cold, hunger, pain, and countless more.
All the custo
