“Chometz in the Salt”

The other day I had to go to one of these governmental offices for some tax form.

It wasn’t the first year actually it was about the fifteenth but this year many things in the structure of the office had changed including I notice with a pinch of pride and joy me.

There’s still the American guy on the phone in high volume asking his wife for the children’s ID numbers and their dates of birth because “no one told me about this part.” And there’s still the lady with the glasses hanging by a long silver-beaded chain who knows everything. But the new addition is a little computer and screen sitting on the reception desktop that a person needs to touch in order to receive their number rather than the old bakery-style roll tickets.

The lady with the glasses hanging explains to me how to use the new machine. I take a chair close to the new thing and organize my papers one on top of the other.