The interior is everything one might expect from an Al Amarjan fast food restaurant - cheap decor featuring tawdry decorations along a "meat animal" theme, plastic checkered tablecloths over the tables in the booths, prominently displayed condiments, numerous trash bins with the words "Thank You" emblazoned on them, the faint smell of cooking meat and canola oil, and a temperature about 5 degrees warmer than the outside air. Now, the odor of Ingar is added to the atmosphere.
An asian woman of around twenty, 140 cm, 46 kg, dressed in a Kangaroo suit with a typical fast food meshback cap perched precariously on top, stands behind the counter. Hanging to the back of her neck is the head of the kangaroo suit, lolling its ever open eyes staring at the ceiling as if someone had botched a decapitation.
The intermixture of human and other animal, along with the suggestion of gross physical trauma, brings back memories of Ingar's family dinners. Dinners with his family that is. They rarely ate entire families, it would be such a waste to kill fertile females.
As Ingar approaches, the woman blurts out in a thick Chinese accent: "You eat burger?"
Ingar stands quiet for a half a minute, breathing deeply and actively suppressing childhood memories and the idea of eating the attendant. "YES. EAT. Hrmf ("think humane thoughts, think humane thoughts"). Would you kindly give me, let's say, fifty burgers, raw, and don't bother with any buns or anything. Just raw meat, please. And I'll take a large plastic trash bag, if you have any in the kitchen. If it isn't too much of a bother, that is."
The asian woman stares at the touch screen for a while, finally finding the appropriate button she is about to press it when she looks up and asks, "What meat please?" Her accent and rapid speaking combine to produce, "Goatboarbearsharkkangaroodogratcatcowplatypusbeavermonkeycarplemmingostrichemudodoalligatorweaselkiwielktitmousereindeercatfish or horse?"
"Monkey!" says Ingar without hesitation, blushing slightly afterwards.
"Fiftymonkeypatties? Raw?" as she keys the screen she looks up at Ingar with a genuine, friendly smile.
"Yes, please" says Ingar, smiling shyly.
"Wouldyoulikefrieswiththat?"
"No, thank you."
Somewhere in the bowels of the Kanga building someone has hit the switch that sends wahtever is playing on the radio out into the customer area. Just coming on is a popular and catchy Madonna tune from the Eighties.
I made it through the wilderness
Somehow I made it through
Didn't know how lost I was
Until I found you
Realizing she is talking to fast she slows way down, "You look tired, please take a seat it will take Ramon a few minutes to get all that from the freezer..."
I was beat
Incomplete
I'd been had,
I was sad
And blue
But you made me feel
Yeah, you made me feel
Shiny and new
"... I'll bring you some tea and we can talk."
"Yes. I am very tired," sighs Ingar.
Like a virgin
Touched for the very first time
Like a virgin
When your heart beats
Next to mine
She shows Ingar to one of the booths and returns with a jug of tea and two big mugs. In the meantime, Ingar has maneuvered himself unot one of the seat, sitting splay-legged, much like a toy man propped onto a bench, and holding his jacket shut over his abdomen with one of his gigantic hands.
Gonna give you all my love, boy
My fear is fading fast
Been saving it all for you
'Cause only love can last
You're so fine
And you're mine
Make me strong,
Yeah you make me bold
Oh your love thawed out
Yeah, your love thawed out
What was scared and cold
"Now tell me about it"
Ingar leans his upper body forwards, propping up his head with his other hand pressed against his forehead. He mumbles "A rather brutish person was mistreating and disrespecting my friends, and a small child as well. I overreacted a bit. My actions just wound up making everything worse. I feel horrible."
Like a virgin
Touched for the very first time
Like a virgin
With your heartbeat
Next to mine
"If you saved the child I don't see how you could feel bad about it." she takes a big drink of the tea.
"I doubt that I did the girl any good, on the contrary, I think I did her a great deal of psychic harm." He shakes his head, rolling his forehead in his palm.
Oooh, oooh, oooh
You're so fine
And you're mine
I'll be yours
'till the end of time
'Cause you made me feel
Yeah, you made me feel
I've nothing to hide
"You did what you thought was best, yes? Not everything works out perfectly."
"Mhm."
Like a virgin
Touched for the very first time
Like a virgin
With your heartbeat
Next to mine
Wa reaches out to pat Ingar's hand. "You need to look at what Americans call 'The Big Painting'."
Ingar thinks: 'No. I do not need to look at the big picture. In the big picture, the Earth is falling through the abyss of space, hurtling relentlessly towards a point where the stars are right, where its orb will roll into Apocalyptic dawn...'
"I guess you are right." he says, smiling gratefully at the clerk.
Like a virgin, ooh, ooh
Like a virgin
Feels so good inside
When you hold me,
And your heart beats,
And you love me
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Ooh, baby
Can't you hear my heart beat
For the very first time?
There is a DING from behind the counter.
"Oh, your food is ready!" says Wa, brought back to the reality of work. She gets up and moves to the counter, the kangaroo head swaying back and forth, back and forth.
Five paperboard boxes are stacked on the counter, each one has the smiling Kanga Burger logo on it and has a check mark in the box that says 'monkey'. Wa takes the boxes places them in a plastic bag along with a super-heavy duty trash bag.
"Plese remit 117 dollars and 62 cents," she says with a smile.
After Ingar pays, Wa hands him a slim volume. "This is some haiku I have written. I would like you to have it."
"Thank you very much" says Ingar, his voice laden with gratitude. He self-consciously keeps his lips closed as he smiles warmly at Wa, keeping the Manglermaster Teeth out of sight as much as possible. Then he searches for a pocket untouched by gastic juices, slips the envelope into it, grabs his purchases and legs it towards the men's room.
Wa smiles happily to herself as Ingar heads to the men's room. Most people have been rude and churlish but this fellow was a genuine nice person. When the newly refreshed Ingar leaves the bloodstained confines of Kanga Burger, Wa wave as if watching a dear relative depart on a long trip.
Over the battered (literally, it once fell into the deep fryer) and tinny loudspeaker the radio is playing:
See the way he walks down the street
Watch the way he shuffles his feet
How he holds his head up high
When he goes walkin' by
He's my guy
When he holds my hand I'm so proud
'Cause he's not just one of the crowd
My baby's always the one
To try the things they've never done
Just because of that they say
He's a rebel
And he'll never ever be any good
He's a rebel
'Cause he never ever does what he should
Just because he doesn't do what
Everybody else does
Oh that's no reason why
I can't give him all my love
He's always good to me
Always treats me tenderly
'Cause He's not a rebel, no no no
He's not a rebel, no no no not to me
If they don't like him that way
They won't like me after today
I'll be standing right by his side
When they say
He's a rebel
And he'll never ever be any good
He's a rebel
'Cause he never ever does what he should
Just because he doesn't do what
Everybody else does
Oh that's no reason why
We can't share a love
He's always good to me
Good to him I'll try to be
'Cause he's not a rebel, no no no
He's not a rebel, no no no to me
Oh he's not a rebel, no no no
He's not a rebel, no no no
He's not a rebel, no no no
He's not a rebel, no no no
Ingar smiles and waves back, absentmindedly rotating his upper body a bit more than any normal skeleton would permit.
'What a nice woman', he thinks. 'YES, SUCCULENT'
he adds. A brief discussion ensues.
To Be Continued...