A STRANGER & I SHARE AN AMUSING MOMENT

It was just past 6 AM when I entered the restaurant and I saw that one other customer had been seated before me. He was a nice looking young man and, since we were the only two there, we nodded a silent “good morning” to each other.

I chose this particular restaurant because I like their choice of breakfast items. On this day I opted for a Spanish Omelet and coffee. My friend was equally conservative and ordered 2 eggs, no meat, a biscuit and coffee.

We were just getting down to eating when we heard the loud approach of an 18-wheeler and, a few minutes later, the driver of the truck was being seated. Now there were three of us in the room and once again we nodded to each other pleasantly.

Our new man was very large & I wasn’t surprised when he ordered the equivalent of 3 breakfasts. After he placed his order he sat back, crossed his hands over his protruding tummy and proceeded to rock back and forth in happy anticipation of the feast to come.

It took two waitresses to carry out the large breakfast he’d ordered and it was placed ceremoniously in front of him. He had pancakes, 3 eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits in gravy and a side order of their special hash browns with cheese, not to mention a large Pepsi.

The breakfast seemed to be literally swimming in butter, gravy and syrup but there was an addition to it that caught our eye. A large slice of twisted orange had been placed artistically atop the pancakes. The driver literally reared back when he saw that and then, very carefully with thumb and forefinger, he plucked the orange slice from the stack and, with a sigh of relief, he deposited it in the ash tray.

The stranger and I could only smile and shake our heads as we locked eyes across the room. We didn’t have to hide the look of amusement on our faces. There was no way that the truck driver would have seen us.

Now that he had successfully rid himself of the one healthy element of his meal he was completely and happily engrossed in the orgy of eating.