46 - Ate a sandwich at Turk's.
joneworlds@mailbox.org

I was  thinking back to  that dog wearing  a covid
mask I saw by the  old mall, and thought I'd swing
by again to  see what old Turk is up  to. He's got
the only  store still running in  that broken-down
old place.  And when  I get there  I see  he's got
this  cardboard sign  up  in the  window, "WE  NOW
SERVE FOOD" and underneath, "NEWLY CLEANED". Well,
I guess  selling used clock radios  wasn't working
out   so   well   for   him   any   more.    NEWLY
CLEANED... okay, well I guess that's good.

And Turk opens the door  and he shoos three little
gnomes outside.  "Out! Out!"  And they  go running
down  the  walk  and  into the  street,  and  this
passing  car totally  creams one  of them.  And of
course   the   other    two   just   scatter   off
somewhere. After seeing this, I stumble inside and
I'm kind of drop-jawed and shell shocked, but Turk
is  like,  "Out!   Only  Olds in  here,  saps  eat
outside!  Out!" And  he shoves  me down  onto this
rusty metal patio chair.  That's fine, covid rules
are fine, I get it.

And soon  he comes  limping out with  my sandwich,
and I go to take a  bite, but he's all shouting at
me like, "No!  Stop!  You  keep the mask on!"  And
he shows me with his own mask, how to pull it away
with one hand  and take a bite with  the other and
then let the mask snap  back. "Like this!"  and he
grabs my mask  off the table and snaps  it back on
my head, and  he grabs my sandwich,  and shoves it
into  my mouth  around the  mask while  it's still
clipped on  my ears. I  just think that's  going a
bit far. And  I don't know if you've  ever eaten a
meatball   and   sauce   sub   while   wearing   a
tight-fitting   cloth  mask,   but  it's...    not
great. And  so I'm not sure  about Turk's service,
but it was a pretty tasty sandwich. Maybe take-out
next time.