Somewhere in America, a movie theater. The boy at the concession counter asked me a question about architecture, and called it butter.
"You want that layered?"
Layered. I looked at the popcorn. I looked at him.
"Explain."
"Instead of all the butter on top, I do butter, popcorn, butter, popcorn." He mimed the strata with a flat hand. He had explained this before. He would explain it again. A craftsman, patient with the public.
I was not prepared. In my land, what is given is given; you do not direct the distribution of a blessing. Here, the boy stood ready to construct my popcorn in courses, like a stone wall — foundation, mortar, foundation, mortar — so that no kernel, however deep, would live unblessed.
"The ones at the bottom," I said slowly, "are usually…"
"Dry. Yeah. Not on my watch."
NOT ON MY WATCH. The oath of a sentry, sworn over popcorn. This is who they have guarding the snacks.
"Then layer it," I commanded, "as your conscience demands."
He built it like a man who would be judged by it. Pour, pump, rotate. Pour, pump, rotate. Four stories. A tower of equal blessings.
The film was fine. I do not remember it. What I remember is the eightieth minute, deep in the bucket, past the depth where popcorn hope usually dies — and finding the kernels there as golden as the first.
The bottom of the bucket. As rich as the top. I confess I held one kernel up in the dark and simply looked at it.
Butter on top blesses the surface. Butter in layers blesses the whole nation.
I tipped the boy on the way out. He had already forgotten me. The best masons forget the wall, and begin the next one.
Layered. Always layered. Some words you only need to learn once.