. . .in Front of a Blazing Fire in Preparation for the Role of the Devil back in the early 1990s during my weekend job while attending NYU after I Refused to make him Spaghetti as his Room Service Waiter. The room service phone rang and I'm the one in the white coat And black bow tie Scooping the runway models their ice cream (yes all of six of them wanted two scoops) And it's past midnight this shift goes till 7am The green BLOCK letters pop up on the thin rectangular screen AL PACINO     ROOM 819 I slightly mildly freak because I knew him as scar face my whole life in fact I thought Al Pacino was actually a gangster growing up His name that big in our Connecticut kitchen or maybe just the television kept showing him shooting that gun and screaming But at the moment I pick up the phone a kind and sort of damaged Friendly voice answers and I say Hello Fancy Name Hotel, how may I be of service? Because we're taught to answer like that real upbeat and eager The female voice said: yes, good evening Mr. Pacino would like a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs please And I said I'm very sorry mam the kitchen's closed the hotel does not serve hot food past midnight And she calmly said again as if he were hovering near her demandingly Ever so sweetly she said Surely there is someone available to prepare Mr. Pacino's dinner am I correct someone there to help you when you are busy I am sorry the chef has gone home for the evening and I have several orders in front of you Raquel Welch wants cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies and Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis just called for Turkey Clubs I didn't tell her this of course because we're suppose to pretend they're not famous wait on them as if we don't know their jobs one time Eric Clapton ordered his usual toast and tea and his face was perhaps the sweetest I've ever looked into so calm and inviting So she said rather persistently what is available? and then she would whisper it or he was breathing near the mouthpiece some kind of bland air wildly rumbling Near the mouthpiece finally she agreed to a Roast Beef sandwich with potato chips and was there a fresh plate of gourmet cookies available? yes thank you for your understanding and please apologize to Mr. Pa-chino for   me I'll have your order within the hour Thank you knock-knock a tall strikingly beautiful blonde woman tall answers the door sort of weeping covering her mouth Embarrassed that I've witnessed it she hides half her self Behind the door then shuts it as I roll the portable table Off the marble clunk-clunk onto the carpet and there he is Seated on the couch fire blazing red velour robe jet black hair in orange jumpy fire lighting Good evening sir I nod Leave the table there she'll take care of it. But I ignore him continue to set the flaps pulling the metal sliding hinges under the smooth wood locking the wheels in place arranging the plates taking off the plastic wrap unveiling the bread basket he's spread-legged:  robe ties hanging between his knees I glance in his direction glimpse a bare knee in fire light Thank you that's fine she'll finish setting up there. I thought it was interesting she had no name perhaps to protect her privacy I think it must have been his wife but truth be told I don't follow his life as closely as I meant to Tell you I felt glad to defy him and I'm glad he didn't get what he wanted because people so cleverly and so quickly Get used to everything even making nonsense even making nothing throughout their lives but other people's sorrow I don't mean necessarily Al Pacino So to see him eyeing me with worse than contempt and to feel her shaking through the leathered cardboard of the receipt holder as she wrote $5 with an almost perfect circle around it I wanted to hold her if even both her forearms and sway though I did not desire her I wanted to say leave him find your life Perhaps the exact same thing I had always wanted to say to my mother As the woman with Al Pacino signed the line on the hotel receipt and adverted my eyes but once she looked at me And so much shame swirled there.