My laconic, graceful friend answers the phone and speaks his mother tongue

It was dark in the hallway in my friend's house, but when the phone rang and he turned to answer it with the slow grace that mirrored his laconic speech, a stripe of sunlight came in behind him through a window. On the phone, he began speaking his mother tongue, which he'd said was a northern Italian dialect, and while his gestures retained their grace, his body language became more lively and words poured out of him in a flood I had never experienced with him before. After a long conversation, he hung up, turned back to me with that slow grace, and quietly apologized: "That was my uncle from Italy." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 22 May 2022)