Harvey is big man who works at the 7-11 turned Shamrock turned Valero--where I go when the weather and my mood call for a hot dog. It's a rare treat and never quite as good as I hope it will be, but ok, it's done, I'm fixed for the next six months.
He gave me his recipe for beef stew as I was paying, then as I was walking out, he said, "You have time for a story? This one will haunt you."
"I've been working 46 days in a row, see, and my girlfriend takes me out last night for a beer. We go to this bar and she and all her girlfriends are speaking Russian together and I'm watching TV, drinking my beer." He makes the sign for drinking a beer.
"So in comes this girl wearing a bikini top and I'm like wow."
I wonder where this story is going.
"But when she comes up closer, you see that she has tattoos covering every inch of her body."
He gestures up his arms, on his Valero-shirted chest, down his jeans, to show me he means every inch. My hot dog is getting cold.
"But here's the kicker. She has no eyebrows, just tattooed ones that go all the way up her forehead. And her face is all-over tattooed. And her tongue--it's cut in half like a snake's tongue!"
I must look disgusted or bewildered because he says, "See how your face looks? That's how I was looking when I seen her!"
I try to think what to say and Gary's words come to mind: "It's a big world."
No comments:
Post a Comment