These two anecdotes are both from Thursday two weeks ago. I plan to post more terse snippets like these. I’m also adopting a weekly schedule for Sandwich Stories. Expect a new post each Thursday.

Oh Gawd

I rode past the transit station and heard someone shout, “oh gaaaaawd.” I looked at the corner, the hangout corner near the Burger King, and saw a slender young man, spinning around with his arms stuck out. He arched his neck, bent forward and crouched, tiptoeing in a spiral. “Oh gaaaaawd,” he shouted in a tone so dramatic that everyone turned and looked. His words betrayed a stifled smile. Finishing his pirouette, he stopped, straightened up and lifted a Sharpie to another man’s face. “Okay, hold still,” he said as the light turned green.

Uh, What Now?

“Raprap rap.” I knocked on an apartment in the Garden District uptown.
“Hey,” the woman behind the door greeted me.

I handed her a credit slip and explained I’d lost my pen. She turned, found one inside and came back with the pen in her right hand and her left forming a pensive open fist. She looked at me expectantly, and then confusedly as I stood holding her food. I was dumbstruck a moment, knocked off the dull humdrum familiarity of my script by the absence of the credit slip I’d handed her. I must’ve returned the confused expression.

“Oh, that was the copy to sign, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“Oh I thought that was mine. Lemme get it.”

We both laughed, embarrassed, and carried on the script as best we could.

“I appreciate it. And the rest is yours,” I handed her the bag.
“Thank youuu,” she practically sang as I retreated down a flight of stairs.

I let out a big sigh, unusually drained from the exchange. It felt like being one of a pair of tight rope walkers, who, when passing each other on a wire, both lose their balance, flail limbs for a split second and just as quickly catch each other, holding each other up before continuing the act.