Merriton

Seventeen days. Sierra fidgeted around the house. She tried not to think about running. Randy was staring at his computer, talking about something. What was it? A cell tower? It had been seventeen days since Sierra’s last run and all she could think about was running. God, why was Randy so excited? “Seriously, Kevin and I just sat there watching them put up the cell tower all day. Kevin kept checking his phone to see if he had service. I don’t know anything about cell towers, but it will probably be a few more days until they finish it. We’re going up tomorrow to watch. Want to come?”

Forty-five minutes. That’s all it would take to drive Up North. There was a 24 Hour Fitness just forty-five minutes away and she could run on the their treadmills until her toenails were bruised and throbbing. “You want me to watch construction workers build a cell tower?” Randy smiled and turned his computer so she could see the screen. “It’s not just any cell tower. It’s a 3G AT&T tower. You know what that means?” Seventeen days. “No.” She looked at his pictures of today’s progress while he continued, “That means that I can finally get an iPhone. And now they’re only two hundred bucks!” Forty-five minutes. “You have millions of dollars just sitting in the bank earning interest and you’re this excited about saving a few hundred dollars?”

Randy turned the computer back toward himself and sighed. “You’re right. I think I’ll get the 16GB version. It’s only a hundred dollars more and you get twice the memory.” Seventeen days. Forty-five minutes. “I think I’ll take a drive Up North.” Randy looked at her with his X-ray vision. “I’ll come with you.” Seventeen days. She had been so proud of herself for lasting this long, but it was too much. She would just walk on the treadmill. It wouldn’t be that much. “No, I think I want to go alone.” His brow crinkled. “Why?”

Forty-five minutes. “Well, Mt. Zen Cafe is closed and I want an Oreo shake, so I thought I’d take a drive Up North for one.” Randy stood up. “I’ll come with you. I think there’s a Polar King in Emigration, so you won’t have to drive that far. It will be fun.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and walked toward the door. Did he know that she wanted to go to the gym in the city or did he just believe her story about a shake and want to come along?

“Do you want to park or should we just drive through?” Seventeen days. God, get this over with! “Let’s just drive through.” Randy drove the car into the drive through and ordered for her. “We’d like a Strawberry Lemonade and an Oreo shake. Can you make sure they put extra Oreo in the shake? She likes it really Oreoy.” The crackle coming from the drive through told Sierra that they were going to get it wrong.

“Randy, they’re going to get it wrong. You can’t get a good Oreo shake from places like this. Only Mt. Zen Cafe gets it right because Angie knows how much Oreo I like.” Randy pulled out his debit card and waited at the window. “We ordered extra Oreo. They’ll get it right.” The window opened and he handed them his card. They handed it back with his lemonade and her shake. She looked at it and it was white with a few sparse black dots of Oreo. “Randy! They didn’t get it right! This is just a vanilla shake with a little bit of Oreo!” Randy started to take it out of her hands. “I’ll just ask them to add more Oreo.” Sierra pulled the shake away from Randy. “NO! They’ll just spit in it! We can’t ask them to fix it! God! I KNEW we shouldn’t have gone here!” Randy was confused. “Why don’t you let me fix this?”

Sierra rolled down the window of the car and threw the shake out onto the parking lot. The cup and lid bounced and landed on its side. “God, the lid didn’t come off! I wanted the lid to come off so they’d have to clean up shake all over the parking lot!” She opened the door, but before she could even put a foot out the door, Randy revved the car and left the parking lot. “Turn around! I’m going to smash that cup so they have to clean up their stupid shake!” Randy shook his head, nearly turning the wrong way on Alabaster. “No! We’re not going back there!” Sierra pulled out her cell phone and found the number for the restaurant.

“Turn around and take me back there!” The phone was ringing and she waited for them to answer. They finally answered. “Hi, I’m the one who threw the shake out on your parking lot and I want you to know WHY!” The car swerved a little and Randy screamed, “You’re CALLING them!” Sierra continued her rant. “When I order an Oreo shake with extra Oreo, I don’t want a vanilla shake that an Oreo looked at once!” She snapped her phone shut and crammed it back into her purse while Randy sped home to Merriton.

It only took two days for word of this incident to travel from Emigration to Merriton, much to the amusement of everyone except Randy. From that day forward, the menu at Mt. Zen Cafe had two new shakes. One was named, Sierra-Approved Oreo Shake, and the other was named, Vanilla Shake An Oreo Looked At Once.