Monday, May 9, 2011

Solid Meal

Nic had become fairly experienced at begging for change. She had learned the facial expressions that instill sympathy, the best spots in town to ask people, and the amount of change that strangers were usually willing to give. Over the past week, she had collected around four dollars in change after having asked more people than she could count. She wasn't surprised, bac kbefore she came to watershed heights whenever a bum asked her for money, she only gave a few coins or apologized for not having any money to give. She was younger than the average bum, and if anyone was willing to give they gave to her. She had saved up enough money to actually buy something from a restaurant. She only had enough to get a small and basic meal, but it was a meal and Nic needed one. She decided on going to Foo Food since she had often wondered what type of food Foo Food actually was. She stepped into the shop and saw a bar with noodles. The man at the cashier gave her a dirty look. She slowly walked up to him, scooped all of her change out of her pockets, and piled it onto the counter. The man gave her an even dirtier look.
"I'm hungry," she said, "I'll take whatever this gets me"
"Smaw noodow," said the man and handed her a bowl about the diameter of a CD, and the depth of a baseball.
"No vegtabuw, no toppeen, no nating, jus noodow."
Nic thanked the man and wandered over to the bar. She chose egg noodles because she figured they had protein. She sat down to one of the tables after grabbing a fork from the bar. The steam from the bowl dampened her face and her mouth began to water. She ate every noodle one by one so as to make the meal last for as lomg as it possibly could. She could hear the man behind her tapping his foot, but she didn't care. She slurped up noodle after plump noodle with pleasure from their texture, warmth and taste. She felt full for the first time in a long time.

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