Red Wheelbarrow 2008 text FINAL REVISED.indd - De Anza College

that has been bleached—bleached—and which has had every last bit
of nutritional value chemically removed, a pickle which has most
likely been sprayed with DTT and, oh my god, is that cheese?” Her
face had turned pale and Mark was afraid she might faint.
He wasn’t sure what to do. He felt a bit defensive. It wasn’t
as if he’d personally bludgeoned the cow to death or overseen the
cutting of the pig’s throat. And as for the cheese, it was Velveeta.
You don’t even need to put Velveeta in the refrigerator. And, hell,
there were sesame seeds on the bun. They must count as some kind
of grain.
Sonia was signaling frantically for Rita, who was pretending
to be busy wiping up a spill. She slowly and eventually made her
way to their table.
“How’s everything here?” she asked. “Can I get you anything
else? How about a slice of pie?”
Sonia pointed a finger at Mark’s plate. “Please,” she said,
“take that away.”
Rita took up the plate and looked at Mark. “Is there
something wrong with your burger? Is it overcooked? I can send it
back.”
“Come on, Mark. We’re leaving,” Sonia announced, putting
on her jacket and gathering up her purse.
Mark flinched. When had they become a “we”?
“Would you like me to wrap it up to go?”
“That’d be fabu…”
He looked over at Sonia. She was standing next to the table,
ready to go. They had only just met and she was already disappointed
in him. Well, that didn’t take long, he thought.
“Uh, no thanks. Just the check please.”
Later that night, lying in Sonia’s bed, Mark found himself
reliving the evening. He rubbed his hip where Sonia’s hipbone had
ground into him while they were having sex. He had been concerned
at first that her aversion to eating meat had been figurative as well
as literal, but had been pleased to discover that that wasn’t the case.
Considering the fact that they had only just met and hardly knew
each other at all, the sex had been nice. Mark often thought that sex
was a lot like pizza—even when it wasn’t great, it was still pretty
good. But tonight had been more than just pretty good. He decided
it was a fair exchange—double bacon cheeseburger for sex.
That had been three months ago and here they were, out
in the middle of nowhere, on their first trip away together. Sonia
had been looking forward to it for weeks. Mark had never been on
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