We went out to Taco Bell yesterday evening (Saturday). It’s Toren’s favorite restaurant; he always gets a bean burrito and loves it. While we were eating, a middle-aged man sat down at a table not far from us with a soft drink. He looked at Toren and tried to engage him from afar by smiling and making faces. Toren, ever shy, moved his burrito up in front of his face to hide.
A minute or two later, the man stood up and walked over toward our table, again trying to get Toren to engage. Toren lowered his burrito just a bit, but still wasn’t interested.
The man then headed to the trash where he scooped up a bunch of discarded chicken (it’s a KFC/Taco Bell) and put it in a box (I think he bought the drink just to get the chicken). He then walked back to our table where Toren was happily munching away on his burrito. The man explained that he was going to give the chicken to his dog. That seemed fairly reasonable to us and is probably a better use of discarded chicken than sending it to a landfill, though it also suggests the man was not particularly affluent, which was apparent from other characteristics as well (e.g., his clothes, unhealthy teeth, and manner of speech).
The man then tried to engage with Toren again (yes, his persistence in engaging with Toren was getting a little creepy at this point, but Toren was on the far side of the table and Debi and I were surrounding him, so nothing was going to happen). Toren did finally look at the man. Once the guy had his attention, he said to Toren, “Are you going to enjoy church tomorrow?”
Toren looked at him, somewhat blankly, but didn’t hesitate to shake his head emphatically and say, “No.”
The guy smiled and brushed it off. He then followed up with, “But they may have cake. You like cake, don’t you?”
Toren nodded that he did, which seemed to please the man and he finally left.
As soon as he was out of ear shot, Debi and I burst out laughing. The whole situation was probably more disturbing than humorous, but we couldn’t help but love Toren’s response to the man’s question. Without knowing what “church” is, Toren had correctly answered that he was not going to enjoy church the next day. You can’t really “enjoy” it if you don’t attend it, now can you?
As Debi and I laughed about Toren’s response, Toren, still munching on his burrito, began to smile. Then he laughed and said, “That was a funny one, wasn’t it?”
