lick a plastic utensil clean before offering it to me. I had to remember to keep chewing and breathing so I didn’t
choke on my hot tasty burger. When I didn’t move to take it, she scooped up a small bit of M&M-ice cream swirl
and aimed it towards my mouth.
I was flustered. I didn’t know what to do or think. Role playing games had did nothing to prepare me for such
an interaction. I now know, years after the fact, she was attempting to flirt with me, but in that moment my mind
leaped to her thinking I was a retard or something. “I’m not two, I can do it myself!” The words snapped out
and were a bit loud and harsh even to my own ears. I even got a one of those sidelong “what’s wrong with
you” glances from a middle aged Mexican woman sitting in the booth beside us.
She looked as though I just slapped her, then she flushed with anger. “I was just playing.” Anna turned away
to quietly eat the McFlurry. I finished my meal in silence—well as much silence as you can have in a
McDonald’s filled with three thousand people stuffed into a space that might have held three hundred. I
watched her from the corner of my eye as best I could. I knew I was just seeing what I wanted to, but more
than once I thought I saw her start as if to speak only to stop herself thinking better of it.
Then our parents were beside us with my brothers in tow. “Hope you’re keeping Anna here out of trouble.”
Mark grinned at me. “You two ready to get going?”
I nodded and collected my trash. I steeled myself against the onslaught of people. The smell of body odor and
desperation washed over me as I made my way to the receptacle. As I dropped my waste, a small hand
grabbed mine. I turn to face Anna “Thank you for the McFlurry.” She had a timid half-smile, like she was afraid
I might slap her again—though her words were quite sincere. She slipped gracefully away into the crowd
before I could respond. I faced a nightmare of spandex and sweat before I was through.
I made the McDonald’s exit just in time to see Anna’s face in the window of her father’s van as it smoothly
glided out of the parking lot. In my mind I saw her smiling and licking the spoon clean and I could feel the soft
touch of her hand upon mine. Pain then radiated up my arm as my oldest brother struck me “Slug bug red!” he
called pointing to a red VW beetle parked down the lot a few spaces.
“Dude, what the fuck!” I angrily rubbed my arm. He had hit the bicep squarely against the bone causing my
fingers and then my hand to tingle numbly.
“Sorry” He shrugged mockingly. “Guess you need to pay more attention.” We then piled into the truck and got
back on the road.
The Sun had set by the time we reached our campsite by the lake. Mark’s van barely made it down the sandy
track that lead to the small secluded cove my father favored. My dad’s truck had a shell on the bed, so while
the others went about setting up their tents in the dark, I took the remainder of the camping gear from the bed
and claimed it as my sleeping spot for the night. Score one for lazy!
I had my queen-size air mattress inflated in half the time it took any of the others to erect their tents. I settled