A Grocery Store

Lights In the Distance. . .

Walks’ Outdate – 61 Days and Counting

By Steven Maisenbacher

WOW, TODAY I ATE AN ORANGE!!!!!!!

And I’ve got 3 more on deck!  Yes, I hot-wired them and smuggled them right out of the chow hall in my smuggle buggy. (My bad) See, for whatever reason they have actually seen fit to give us oranges as the fruit alternative at meals where there is a desert on the menu. Amazing, and I have totally taken the pleasure out for them insisting on cutting the oranges in half. I’m saying it’s to save me time in peeling it; I can just do the push on it, it flips inside out and low and behold there is the sweet delectable meat all oozing with juice, dripping all on my hands and down my arms, uhhhggggggggg!!! This was sooo good.

It has been more than 5 years since I had an orange!

Just think about that for a minute – 5 years without one bit of citrus fruit in your diet! I eat pill form vitamin C tabs every morning and evening, but it just ain’t the same.  I think that I’m gonna have to be real honest here; I need to tell ya, at this stage in life and after all these years, if I could have my choice (and I will very soon) between a gentleman’s club with all sorts of pretty scantily clad women dancing and prancing around for the tips OR a trip to the grocery store with a nice crisp $50.00 dollar bill, well, I’m sorry, it’s me on the way to Publix, or Kroger, Save-On, Food Lion or Piggly Wiggly, or wherever they got all the fruits and veggies on display! OMG, that’s almost erotic to me – all the oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, the bananas and the cherries, and grapes – Oh Man, can’t forget the grapes, and I don’t even wanna think about the frozen foods isle.

See that’s where I will be able to get the stuff I can just toss in the microwave or oven, heat and eat. Geeminy, wish I could convey to you how deeply I long for real food, whatever I want to eat. I have definitely been starved for real food! I remember pizza rolls, those little things ya heat ‘em and eat ‘em; I used to smash a gang of em watching a movie.  I remember the taste of broccoli, fresh and green; rinse it off and sling some ranch on it, man and cauliflower! I love and long for the day when I can get these things again. And all this dreaming is sparked by the taste of a stolen from the chow hall orange. And I got 3 more. Hehehe, feels like a big deal to me. Like you hadn’t had an orange in 5 years then all of a sudden, “wham” score! It’s crazy cuz I’m sitting here writing this where I can see my cell door, wanna be dang sure no one goes in there and relieves me of my prize.  No siree, gotta ensure that I get the opportunity to devour them all by myself, and I know just what else too… if they had em today, then maybe they will have ‘em tomorrow… Maybe, just maybe, a grapefruit! Oh, I’d be in bliss.

There are a few other food tastes that I have truly missed over the last 20 or so years – a hot ham and cheddar sandwich or real bacon. I got real bacon when my brother Mike and his wife, Karen came to visit me in the form of a bacon cheeseburger and damn it was so delicious! Even tho it was probably a decade old from a vending machine, I sang praises in their names for being instrumental in getting it for me. Smile.

Another delight I have thought about at least a thousand times, my sister-in-law, Bab’s, lasagna. Let me tell ya, Bab’s lasagna is by far hands down the best I have ever tasted.  I had some a couple times decades ago and I can still remember clearly and distinctly how delicious it was and probably still is. I have on occasion while in my ignorance and captivity thought to myself, man, some of Bab’s lasagna would be enough to make me a content person at this very moment!

Sadly enough, that dream never came to pass all these decades, so I have had to do with what I could concoct myself out of what I could steal from the chow hall, the stuff they sell us in the store or whatever can be scraped together by combining things we can obtain by other means like a chow hall, store or kitchen worker looking to make a little side hustle money off whatever they can get their little mitts on. lol.

It’s funny to think that something most people take for granted is something that I dream for, long for, even plan for. When you have to do without or when you are truly hungry, the only cure is plenty, and the only place I know of where I will be able to find solace or satisfaction is only days away from my grasp, that’s amazing! See, once I get out I will be able to walk in and buy one or 10, no limit, no one to tell me I can’t have one or no one to say hey, put it back – well at least as long as I’m paying for it. Smile. Yeppers, one thing on my mind, one thing that can cure my desire, my absolute want and need – a grocery store.

I’m gonna need some napkins, lots and lots of napkins…

Be sure to check out Walks’ Footpan Foodz in Along the Way for some of his creative culinary delights. ed.