The Hankering

When you just gotta have it...

Bonnie didn’t frequent the sandwich shop enough to know what she wanted immediately upon entering. With 22 numbered sandwich items plus a range of sides and drinks, she had to pore over each item to see if it was what she was hungry for. She really didn’t know if she was into roast beef, turkey, or a plain Italian just yet.

“Welcome. May I help you?” Aaron at the cash register asked.

“I’ll need a minute,” said Bonnie. “It’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

“Take your time. Let me know when you’re ready. I’ll just be tending to another sandwich.”

“Sure, fine,” she said.

There was just so many items to choose from. Did she want the combo with chips and a drink, or maybe even cole slaw or potato salad and a drink?

“Ok,” Bonnie said to herself. “Let’s decide on the meat first. Turkey? Italian? Pastrami? Roast beef? Corned beef? Yeah, pastrami, everything except mustard. No, no wait. Turkey’s much healthier. Eh, but it’s not as good as pastrami. And I haven’t had pastrami in ages. But the ham looks good too. Naa, I can get ham any day of the week. Pastrami. What kind of bread? Italian roll’s the best with pastrami. No, the marbled bread. Wonder if they have it. Ahh, no, they don’t. Nuts. I don’t see it up there. Let’s do the potato salad…”

“Miss,” Aaron at the cash register said, interrupting her concentration. “Could you step aside while these nice folks behind you place their order, that is, since you haven’t made up your mind.”

“No, no. Go right ahead. I’m a slow decider,” Bonnie said to the couple behind her.

Bonnie stepped to the side, her eyes glued to the menu board above and behind Aaron.

“Now, where was I? Oh, pastrami. No mustard. Marble. No wait, they don’t have marble bread. Italian roll. No, whole wheat roll. Potato salad. Oh, that sounds great. Why’d I let these people get ahead of me? I can taste that pastrami and potato salad right now. I need to come here more often.”

The couple finished ordering, walked around Bonnie, so she stepped up to the cash register.

“I’m gonna go with the pastrami on the wheat roll, er, number 11 it looks like to me, with the potato salad and drink.”

Aaron walked over to a sandwich maker and said a few words, and then he returned.

“Ma’am, sorry but, we’ve just sold out of pastrami. We only get so much in per day. Just sold out. Sorry about that.”

“No. No, that’s not possible. I had a hankering for pastrami. All right. Let me think about this. Ok, I’m stepping aside for a few minutes to think this over. I know the routine now, Aaron.”

*******