First Sight

Yesterday I think I fell in love with a man that works behind the food counter at K-mart and smells like hamsters. To be honest he looks a bit like a hamster too. His cheeks are fat and round and his upper lip arches so that his front teeth show all the time, not just when he’s smiling or talking.

I’d never eaten at K-mart before. I was there to get a garden hose and gumballs for my penny machine and I got lost. I wandered around and found myself standing in front of a short wall that separated me from department store concessions. At first I just wanted iced tea, but then I saw the hot dogs straining in their pink skins, rolling over the hot metal treadmill. Anyway, I don’t know what happened, but I saw those hot dogs and I saw him standing there looking like Bandit, the hamster I had when I was nine. My heart pounded as I stepped forward. He wore a plastic hairnet with a red baseball cap over it and khakis that were cinched too tightly at the waist.
“Hi. What can I get for ya?”
“Can I have a large iced tea and a hot dog with onions, please?” My voice squeaked and my throat itched. I leaned my hips into the counter to steady myself.
He just nodded and pushed the buttons on the register. His name tag read “Buddy”.
“$5.23…Hey, I could put some of the nacho cheese on there for ya. That’s what I do. It’s real good. I won’t charge extra.”
“That’d be great.” I wondered if he offered it to everyone, or just me.
I wanted to offer him a gumball of his choice. I wanted to jump the counter and bury my nose in his neck to inhale enough of him to last my lonely drive home. I wanted to wear that hairnet.
“Here ya go.” He handed me my tea and hot dog. “Tell me what you think.”
I didn’t want to take a bite in front of him, but I smiled and did anyway. The cheese was so hot it scorched the roof of my mouth and I had to spit the whole bite out into the paper boat it came in. The ball of food landed and sat at the corner steaming.
His eyes opened wide. “Oh.” he said quietly.
We both stared at the half-chewed bite for a second. My eyes filled with tears. I was so embarrassed I didn't know what to say or do, so I leaned across the counter, inhaled him deeply and turned to walk away. I set the gumballs down on the first table I passed and ran out the automatic doors without looking back.

On my drive home I smelled my hands and tried to pick up his scent. With my tongue I gently prodded the growing blister on the roof of my mouth. Then I pushed into its softness until it gave. I thought about his big, yellow front teeth. His fat, round cheeks. They were plump like the hot dogs and I wondered what he had stored in there.