Room Temp

I eased into the back booth and ordered the usual – char grilled burger, black coffee and a side of mayonnaise. Sitting there, randomly pondering over the events of the day – rifling through all of the memories that made me pulse and tremble with joy. OK wait, that is only half true - there was a rhyme and a reason to what I was doing there... I could almost find the answer - it was on the tip of my tongue. In all honesty looking back, I think I was just searching for a deeper purpose for my days. Still, time went by with some thoughts half-realized and some dreams that would often became ideas, which in turn would become something more - sometimes something tangible. All of them spider-webbing into each-other while simultaneously going off on untraceable tangents. Instead of falling deeper down into my own mental rabbit hole I decided it was time to stop myself. Stop running around in circles. 'I can get through this!' I thought as I proudly dipped the burger into the tiny silver mayonnaise bucket. The now room temperature mayo was semi-transparent and beginning to form sweat beads. With a blank stare on my face and my eyes half open, I gnawed into that dry pressed beef paddy slathered in rich mayo - pausing here and there to sip my coffee. Something about the scene was truly classic and shockingly eye-opening - it all boiled in my blood like hot grease. Perhaps it was the wafting smell of the deep fryer mingling with the cheap perfume that the cashier wore. More than likely it was the overwhelming sensation of heightened spiritual euphoria – as if everything that ever could be washed over me in a single instant. I was saturated with ultimate jubilation - laughing to myself as I took another greedy bite. Minutes went by before I heard the woman in the booth behind me feeding coins into the tabletop jukebox. Then, as if blasted in the face with a handful of raisins, A Whiter Shade of Pale came blaring through the sound system, full crank. I raised my arms to heaven on high, smiling into the great beyond as tears came streaming down my freshly shaven face, mingling with the gelatinous mayonnaise on my plate.