The Big Apple Trip that Shall Never Be

Hello again, my dears. I'll tell you what -- just when you think you know somebody, I mean REALLY know somebody, they always seem to throw you a nasty curveball. Of course, I'd be referring to George, who I thought only had one kind of pitch in his arsenal (that being, of course, his straight-laced, no-nonsense fastball). Ahead of me in line today, a young lady had asked for a side of rice. Now usually this is a pretty standard order for a side dish; however, on this particular order, this woman had the audacity to ask for a half order of white rice, and a half order of fried! Who the blazes does she think she is? I thought to myself, and I was sure George (maybe with a particular four-letter word in place of 'blazes') was thinking the same thing...

EXCEPT HE WASN'T!!!

George simply stood by and watched his employee dish up a half order of each, the spoon visibly shaking in her hand. Apparently she knew that, at any moment, George could snap and her whole day would be ruined. This wasn't, after all, the first time I'd seen George send one of his underlings to the back in a flood of tears. This time, however, George took the plate of rice, smiling, and dished up the woman's desired entrees. I was shocked! I wanted to ask the lady serving the rice if someone had replaced George with a cyborg or some other artificially intelligent android. Instead, I just asked for fried rice, deciding not to tempt those very fine fibers of fate by asking for a half-order of each...

At the end of the line, as George was ringing me up, I decided to bring up his favorite subject. 'It's almost a crime to be inside today!' I said, smiling. George smiled back and agreed whole-heartedly.

Then, surprisingly, he continued, 'Maybe go to baseball game today--oh no, no baseball here this week, I think, right?'

'That's right,' I said. Deciding not to stray too far, I said 'It would be the perfect week for one, though.' George smiled, and clearly wasn't going to respond. Seeing that my credit card was still waiting to be approved, I thought that I'd better break the silence before it got too out of hand. 'Did you see the game yesterday? Twins finally pulled one off on those darn Yankees!'

Just then, it seemed as if I had awoken some dark-hearted daemon resting inside George's soul. 'I'm Yankee fan,' he said, 'I'm from New York.'

I could have said a million things just then to ease the tension, but I went with my gut and just said 'Oh...'

'I'm going back next weekend,' he said. 'But I'm going alone. Nobody to go with.'

My credit card slip slid out from the machine's mouth. I was happy to take it and move on with my meal, but instead I made the mistake of looking up into George's puppy-dog eyes. After a monumental back-and-forth in my mind, weighing the decision of whether or not a trip to the City that Never Sleeps with George would be a good idea, he made up my mind for me and said, 'That okay. I like to fly alone.'

And that was that. He handed me my receipt, bid me a good day, and started pouring a drink for the next customer. I stood dazed. In a matter of a few seconds, I had gone from a loyal customer, to a possible confidante on a cross-country trip with a man that manages a fast food restaurant, to being cast aside like an unwanted kitten. I understood his decision, but still, it hurt. It hurt a lot.

Will I ever recover to make another trek to the Toke? Admittedly, right now I cannot answer that. I guess you'll just have to wait and see if there's a shiny new blog entry here next week...

(CLIFFHANGER!!!)