10-16/The Pizza Man Lives!

http://cornerbar-cwk.blogspot.com/2008/10/pizza-man.html

On a cold and rainy Friday afternoon, my colleague and I walked through the FAA Cafe as we normally did every day at lunch. Today there was no umpf, no zest, and no special. We decided we'd hike across the street to try the pizza place.

Situated in a strip mall that catered to most of JFK's workers, the pizza place shared its inhabitance with a Check cashing place, Chinese take-out, and a deli that seemed to take most of the lunch crowd.

Excited to always try a new slice of pizza, we sat down at a table and had at it. I briefly took notice of someone saying, "onions," at the counter, but continued on my merry way talking to Dan about Atlantic City.

This onion gentleman now appeared at the table diagonal from us, and he settled in with a tuna sandwich on a roll, and a bottle of water. He wore a very nice suit, with a fancy tie that was so close to his top button, it almost was attached to his Adam's apple. Probably around 50, he wore designer framed glasses, and had a shaved head.

He dined alone, and obviously had something on his mind. Almost as if he was blind he stared towards the window for a bit and then searched for his bottle of water. Unsuccessful for a few moments, he snapped out of his trance and turned his head toward the .5 liter of Poland Spring and grabbed it.

Next he arranged his sandwich by ensuring that it was broken in half by completely separating the pieces and placing them neatly on the plate. He slightly opened his mouth doing so, as if his hands were of a lovers,' teasing him gently with edible sensuality.

Then the moment arrived.

He grabbed the left half with his left hand. Soon after his right hand joined in the heavy lifting. Contorting the sandwich around to protect gravity from stealing any morsel of the the minced fish, his mouth opened wide causing him to squint through his rectangular lenses. Then the trance began.

The eyes released from the squint and opened again towards the window. He chewed as if he was reciting a prayer, and then swallowed with a wince as if it was a annoying distraction. But before he could sulk that he no longer had food, he jammed another mouthful of the remaining half - his eyes and mouth now wide looking like the bite even took him by surprise. He completed the bite by shaking his head back and forth like a crocodile killing its prey.

After completing his chew, his eyes remained fixed on the window. He grabbed the water, this time remembering where it exactly was so he could continuing staring, unblinking, at what appeared to be a cartoon pizza man affixed to the window flipping a pie. His head tilted backwards to accommodate the cold bottled water, eyes remaining level at the pizza man.

I started laughing and Dan asked me why. I said I would tell him later, and we left.

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