I was at a truck stop Arby's at eleven a.m., buzzing from a mix of muted passion and that excitement so intertwined with being on the road on a crisp fall morning. The man behind me on line* wore a bushy blond mustache and oversized glasses which made him look like Bud Court in 'The Life Aquatic'. His straw hat and pink sandals clued me to eccentricity, so I kept him in my peripheral vision and noticed a distinct rhythmic bounce. With nothing to do but wait, I looked down at the shoes of the guy in front of me. Brown Kenneth Cole wingtips were tapping with a beat too regular to be from impatience or nerves. The well-groomed Korean businessman attached to these shoes was bobbing his head inconspicuously, as were the two Hasids in front of him. More noticeable was the freckled college student who was almost dancing, shaking in her hand the receipt that I assumed was for curly fries. I watched her hips for a few moments and listened. That hook was unmistakable. Playing on the tinny Arby's radio was "Two Princes", and the obese** black lady behind the register was singing along silently. "Said, if you want to call me baby, just go ahead now," she mouthed in the general direction of my Chinese bus driver, who shook his keys on each backbeat. Nearly everyone in this surprisingly crowded, surprisingly diverse late-morning truck stop Arby's was rocking out to The Spin Doctors. I watched them all in their separate spheres, not noticing one another. I was probably tapping my feet a little too.
Having a sudden urge to tell someone about this, I took out my phone to text a girl who I had been thinking about a lot lately. I hesitated though, suddenly filled with doubts. The doubts won over and I put my phone away. Another part of me wanted to text an old friend. Chris Barron's name would bring her back to a specific, lovely moment we spent together. But I knew it had been too long. Instead I told nobody and ordered my roast beef gyro***. Eventually the song changed, but not to one I wanted like "Mr. Jones" or "Virtual Insanity", but rather to something new and unrecognized, and we all got back on the same speechless bus, headed to a better destination.
* lay off, non-New Yorkers
** hey, I would be too if I worked at Arby's
*** that gyro was delicious by the way
2 comments:
Haha, great stuff. Lucky you had that asterisk for "on line" because I was going to tell you how wrong you were for saying it. I can't believe you were eating at Arby's and enjoying it. Have you no shame.
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