NervousMan Buys a Sandwich

NervousMan wanders out, head down.

He starts at the opening of the elevator doors.

Each time, there is the mental image of it being full of people in his head, laughing, and so on.

There is usually someone on the way down that NervousMan has to share the elevator with. He hates it when they laugh or when they talk to each other in a foreign tongue.

"I just want a pastrami sandwich," NervousMan thinks as he shuffles across the underground parking lot in his blue socks and sandals, light blue jacket, dark blue sweats, and blue shirt.

Blue, blue, blue…. always blue.

The sky is overcast, the air nippy. As he opens the door he is very aware of his eyes: dark and serious and slightly mad. He hopes no one looks into them, so he looks down.

NervousMan mutters, "I'm sorry.... I'm sorry" under his breath as he waits at the sandwich shop, to be called.

"It is hard to deal with people without looking at them," he thinks to himself, nervously. And waits.

Fortunately, this time, he has a male making his sandwich; otherwise he worries about the females thinking he is looking at their breasts when he is only trying not to look into their eyes and look down.

NervousMan eats his food methodically, alone, in the corner by the window. This time, they gave him extra napkins without his asking for them. They know him here now.

NervousMan suddenly remembers that he has to breathe.

He sips his Mountain Dew. Like a Russian revolver, he doesn't know if it will make him less 'blue' or make him more nervous.

NervousMan's nervousness and his 'blue'-ness dance a tango in his mind.

NervousMan looks intently at the black Formica of the table as he chews the contents of his sandwich.

Someone laughs on the other side of the restaurant.

Finishing, he scoops up the remnants of his sandwich, sweeping bits of lettuce, and onion onto his tray; he pops a stray piece of pink flesh into his mouth and carries the tray to the THANK YOU door.

NervousMan can still taste the mustard as he slips out the door of the sandwich shop, into the coldness of the outside and makes his way, head down, back to his cave.